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BOUCK  WHIT 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 
From  the  library  of 

Henry  Goldman,  C.E.  Ph.D. 

1886-1972 


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Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/freecitybookofneOOwliitiala 


THE  FREE  GITY 


THE  FKEE   CITY 

A  BOOK  OF  NEIGHBORHOOD 


BY 

BOUCK  WHITE 

AUTHOR  OP   "the  CALL  OF  THE  CARPENTER," 

"the  carpenter  and  the  rich  man," 
"  the  book  of  danisl  drew,"  etc. 


NEW   YORK 

MOFFAT,  YARD  &  COMPANY 
1919 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY 
M07FAT,  YARD  &  COMPANY 


HT 


TO 

ARISTOTLE  AND  JESUS 

THE   TWO   MASTER   MINDS   OF   OUR   PLANET, 

FOUNDERS    OF   POLITICAL   SCIENCE, 

FELLOW  TOILERS   FOR  A  SOUND  JURISPRUDENCE, 

THIS  BOOK   IS  REVERENTLY   INSCRIBED. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Neighborhood  or  Nationhood 1 

II.  Municipal    Communion    is    the    Light  of 

Genius 12 

TIL  City-worship  Lays  Her  Basis  Deep    ...  24 

IV.  When  Rome  was  a  Republic 38 

V.  Athenian  Self-ownership 52 

VI.  The  City  Set  on  a  Hill 70 

VII.  The  Patriotism  of  Jesus 87 

VIII.  Why  America  is  tbdej  Loiterer 105 

IX.  Twilight  and  the  Dark        120 

X.  Industrial  Democracies 131 

XL  The  City  State  is  a  Work  State  ....  144 

XII.  The  Afterglow 169 

XIII.  When  Commonwealth  is  King 174 

XIV.  Now  IN  THE  World's  Remaking      ....  191 

XV.  Cara  Patria,  Carior  Libertas 207 

XVL  The  Mysticism  of  Municipality     ....  224 

XVII.  The  Social  State 239 

XVIIL  Personality 252 

XIX.  The  Land  op  Everlasting  Life      ....  271 

XX.  A  Cosmic  Courtship 282 

XXI.  The  Republic  of  Common  Sense     ....  298 


The  Free  City 

CHAPTER   I 

NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD? 

THE  present  scheme  is  petering  out;  it  has  run  its 
tether.  A  thousand  years  have  elapsed  since 
1914.  Our  America,  in  the  form  it  held  hitherto, 
is  no  more  booked  for  continuance  than  are  the  other 
institutions  of  that  prehistoric  era  before  the  War.  The 
best  thing  we  can  say  about  our  Constitution  is  that  it 
provides  the  machinery  for  its  own  annulment.  I  sup- 
pose that  Alexander  Hamilton  let  loose  more  currents 
of  greed  and  unbelief  than  any  other  man  now  inhabiting 
the  kingdoms  of  the  dead.  Does  not  this  Potomac  River 
fabric  that  he  was  instrumental  in  creating,  present  to 
the  gaze  of  men  and  of  angels  a  madder  money-worship 
than  ever  before  bedevilled  the  human  species?  Where 
else  can  be  found  so  steep  contrast  between  the  extremes 
of  wealth  and  destitution?  That  gulf  simdering  through 
the  midriff  of  our  body  politic  is  the  measure  of  our 
social  breakdown.  In  the  dungeons  of  humdrum,  plod 
the  toiling  masses  accursed;  whilst  in  the  banquet  hall 
above,  the  privileged  ones  hold  carnival.  But  high  against 
the  wall,  the  Flame-Finger  is  writing.  It  is  no  longer  a 
question.  Shall  we  change  our  social  order?  but  only, 
What  shall  we  change  it  into? 

"League  of  Nations,"  is  the  answer  given  by  many. 
And  certainly  much  sincere  idealism  acclaimed  that 
messiah.     But  even  now,  there  is  discernible  in  their 


2  THE  FREE  CITY 

ardor  a  marked  cooling.  The  league  of  nations  Covenant, 
that  was  to  have  been  the  document  of  a  divine  and 
revolutionary  change  in  our  planetary  ongoings,  was  not 
long  in  shrinking  from  a  world's  diameter  to  a  "Big 
Five."  Then  a  "Big  Four."  And  soon,  a  "Big  Three." 
Geneva  as  the  seat  of  John  Calvin's  Free  City,  achieved 
a  name  aroimd  which  even  yet  clusters  a  radiance  of 
high  description.  But  a  Geneva  of  world  pohticians,  the 
puppet  of  international  financiers,  would  indite  a  quite 
dififerent  tale.  Already  there  are  signs  of  a  rival  League 
of  Nations,  with  a  rival  world  capital. 

As  the  area  of  the  state  enlarges,  the  importance  of 
the  individual  diminishes.  Statehood  is  the  window  in 
the  house,  through  which  we  get  our  glimpse  of  Heaven; 
inlet  of  celestial  sunUght  and  the  fresh  air.  But  if  too 
many  are  crowded  into  one  house,  that  window  cannot 
admit  air  and  light  for  them  all.  And  a  suffocating  Black 
Hole  of  Calcutta  is  the  result  —  a  beast-den  of  wild 
raging  maniacs,  clawing,  shrieking,  fighting  towards  that 
vent.  On  the  other  hand,  multiply  the  houses;  you  have 
now  fewer  folk  in  each.  So  the  window  therein  is  adequate 
to  the  inhabiters.    And  a  civil  decorum  is  engendered. 

Liberty  has  a  dual  task:  to  build  a  state,  and  keep  it 
small.  When  the  state  is  too  large,  imperialism  is  the 
cursed  product.  When  there  is  no  state  at  all,  anarchism 
is  the  product,  equally  a  hell  broth  of  miseries.  Col- 
lectivity must  be,  but  not  a  collectivity  too  colossal. 
The  municipal  repubHc  is  statehood,  but  it  is  statehood 
reduced  to  its  lowest  terms.  Therefore  it  gives  the 
maximum  of  benefit,  with  a  minimum  of  individual 
repression.  A  state-kept-small,  is  man's  servant;  a  state- 
too-big  mounts  over  him,  a  very  tjTant  for  mastership. 

Modernity,  organizing  the  map  of  the  globe  into 
huge  governmental  fabrics,  talks  gUbly  of  "Englands," 


NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD?    3 

"Americas,"  "Italys,"  et  cetera.  The  players  of  the 
game  sit  around  a  table,  shifting  these  counters  like 
gamesters  in  a  poker  match.  They  forget  that  each  of 
those  collectivities  is  constituted  of  fifty  million  John 
Smiths  and  Richard  Roes,  every  one  of  whom  is  a  deep 
tremendous  entity,  with  his  love  affairs,  family  ties,  debts, 
ambitions,  diseases,  worriments,  struggHngs,  plannings, 
hopings,  despondings.  Which  fifty  million  John  Smiths 
are  refusing  longer  to  lump  themselves  into  a  poUtical 
poker  chip  to  be  bandied  around  an  international  gaming 
table. 

The  submergence  of  the  individual  —  here  is  the 
heart  of  the  present  discontents.  When  the  Potomac 
scheme  started,  a  Congressman  represented  thirty  thou- 
sand people.  To-day  a  Congressman  represents  nearly 
three  hundred  thousand  people;  a  shrinkage  of  a  thousand 
per  cent  in  the  governmental  weight  of  each  American,  in 
a  space  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years.  And  the  dis- 
proportion is  growing. 

We  Americans  have  tried  to  salve  our  wounded  self- 
esteem  by  explaining  that  we  choose  our  representatives, 
and  therefore  must  not  be  accounted  altogether  as  puppies 
in  a  basket;  for  at  least  we  elect  the  person  who  is  to 
carry  the  basket.  But,  to  elect  the  basket-carrier  once 
in  four  years,  and  then  be  toted  about  —  is  it  not  still 
a  puppy  status?  Furthermore  some  disquieting  thoughts 
are  arising  as  to  that  "election"  business.  It  is  being 
discovered  that  centralization  of  government  carries 
with  it  centralization  of  control  over  political  parties. 
Nowhere  is  the  unimportance  of  the  individual  more 
poignantly  manifest  than  on  Election  Day,  when  the 
basket-carrier  is  chosen.  The  spectacle  of  that  "sacred" 
Tuesday  in  November  is  steadily  deteriorating  in  its 
power  to  swell  the  heart  with  emotions  of  freedom  and 


4  THE  FREE  CITY 

self-reverence.  It  is  safe  to  aflGirm  that  there  is  not 
another  day  in  the  calendar  when  the  puppy-in-a-basket 
feeling  is  so  depressingly  pushed  home  onto  the  con- 
sciousness of  everyone  who  knows  the  facts. 

Sirs,  only  a  league  of  Free  Cities  can  be  the  United 
States  of  the  World.  History  holds  no  precedent  of 
nations  federating.  But  history  holds  many  a  precedent 
of  Free  Cities  federating.  National  states  are  com- 
mercial. Commerce  covets  a  wide  poUtical  expanse. 
When  commerciaUsts  get  control,  they  straightway 
tear  down  the  territorial  partitions;  in  order  to  give  the 
trader  a  broad  area  across  which  to  ply  his  traffic.  Which 
broad  unrestricted  area  in  turn  Uberates  the  conmiercial 
—  money-lusting  —  instinct.  That  money-lust  after  a 
time  collides  with  a  like  lust  in  some  other  national- 
commercial  group;  with  war  as  the  name  of  it.  Com- 
mercialism, nationalism,  militarism  —  Htter  of  one  and 
the  same  wolf-bitch.  And  Greed  is  the  hound  that 
sired  them.  ■  In  a  large  way  of  looking,  there  have  been, 
and  will  always  be,  only  two  forms  of  society:  the  mu- 
nicipal and  the  national.  Municipality  projects  an 
artistic  civilization;  nationality  projects  a  commercial 
civilization.  An  artistic  age  is  affectionate,  a  commercial 
age  is  drab  and  chill  and  bloody. 

America  is  not  a  country  but  a  continent.  Americans 
are  notorious  for  their  materialist  quality  of  mind.  It  is 
because  we  gave  up  our  system  of  httle  republics,  and 
consolidated  into  what  is  now  the  hugest  of  nations. 
Being  biggest  of  them  all,  we  are  most  material-minded 
of  them  all.  Things,  Things,  Things  are  in  the  saddle; 
with  man  as  the  damned  packhorse  underneath.  Rich 
in  peK  are  we,  and  spiritual  paupers.  The  bank  book  is 
our  bible.  Idolatry  of  the  Dollar;  stable  of  the  Golden 
Calf!    With  mediocrity  marking  us  for  her  own.     The 


NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD?   5 

two  first  class  souls  we  have  produced  were  Emerson 
and  Whitman.  Emerson  spoke  one  continuing  protest 
against  the  materiaUsm  of  American  Hfe.  Whitman 
lived  that  protest,  and  pleaded  for  decentralization  of 
goverrmient:  "To  the  States,  or  any  one  of  them,  or  any 
City  of  the  States:   Resist  much,  obey  little." 

Why  is  the  European  laborer  high-spirited,  and  the 
American  laborer  low-spirited;  so  that  any  ferment  in 
our  proletariat  is  usually  to  be  traced  to  foreigners  resi- 
dent among  us?  It  is  because  in  Europe,  states  are 
comparatively  small;  so  the  individual  there  is  not 
swallowed  up,  but  retains  a  sense  of  personal  importance. 
America  is  well  nigh  as  big  as  all  Europe  put  together. 
Living  in  so  vast  an  empire,  the  American  loses  control 
of  his  destiny;  becomes  fatalistic,  submissive,  crushed 
with  a  feeling  of  helplessness.  Search  history,  you  will 
find  that  practically  all  of  the  philosophies  of  fatalism 
arose  in  times  of  huge  statehoods. 

The  larger  the  state,  the  more  supine  is  the  individual. 
That  is  why  the  forces  of  reaction  are  here  so  massively 
intrenched.  Europeans  are  awakening.  We  Americans 
are  the  backward  stagnant  member  of  the  human  family. 
"Government  for  the  people,"  said  Hamilton.  "Govern- 
ment by  the  people,"  pleaded  Patrick  Henry.  Hamilton 
triumphed  —  that  secret  convention  of  1787,  which 
inflicted  Central  Government  upon  us.  Hamilton  labored 
incessantly  to  the  end  that  "the  Federal  Government 
may  then  triumph  over  the  State  governments,  and 
reduce  them  to  entire  eubordination;"  in  order  *' to  pro- 
tect the  men  of  property  from  the  depredations  which 
the  democratic  spirit  is  apt  to  make  on  property."  Since 
then,  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  mammonism  unre- 
strained, unabashed,  prove  that  Patrick  Henry  was 
right,  and  Hamilton  was  wrong. 


6  THE  FREE  CITY 

If  life  consisteth  in  the  abundance  of  things  man  pos- 
sesseth,  then  America  is  immistakably  a  success.  But 
if  life  is  to  be  measured  in  terms  of  fellowship  and  joy 
and  song  and  beauty's  high  creation,  then  we  are  a 
miserable  and  sorriest  failure.  No  nation  upon  earth 
that  so  needs  to  enter  the  valley  of  a  deep  humiUation, 
as  the  U.S.A.  The  wholesomest  thing  that  could  happen 
to  us  would  be  to  sit  for  a  season  on  the  mourners'  bench. 
More  than  any  other  people,  we  need  a  penitential  office, 
intoning  a  Utany  of  mortification  for  our  mistreadings 
and  shortcomings.  Otherwise  the  blatancy  and  cockiness 
of  easy  wealth  wiU  vulgarize  us  beyond  the  reach  of 
redemption.  What  America  needs  is  not  a  sooth-teller 
but  a  truth-teller.  Let  us  be  quit  of  the  flatterers  we 
have  hired  to  say  pleasant  things  to  us. 

We  are  a  nation  of  gadders  and  money-getters.  We 
have  lost  the  instinct  of  Uberty  —  we  think  chiefly  in 
terms  of  comfort.  There  is  a  hardening  of  the  heart. 
Whilst  our  pocket  book  is  fattening,  the  soul  of  us  has 
been  going  scrawny  and  tubercular.  Where  else  upon 
earth,  in  this  or  any  other  day,  shall  you  find  biUionairie 
opulence  side  by  side  with  a  pauperism  utter  and  stark 
and  naked  of  hope?  Money  —  money  is  the  thing  we 
boast;  forgetful  that  the  money-making  talent  is  perhaps 
the  cheapest  of  them  all.  But  not  even  the  money  is  of 
our  own  creating.  We  found  the  wealth  here;  had  merely 
to  gather  it  in  double  handfuls. 

Municipal  states  weigh  life  in  terms  of  greatness.  Na- 
tional states  weigh  life  in  terms  of  bigness.  The  United 
States  Constitution,  ordaining  a  people  whose  mentaUty 
is  attuned  to  standards  of  bulk,  hugeness,  sprawling  im- 
mensity, will  have  to  be  written  down  as  the  most  sinister 
document  ever  produced  by  the  twin  forces  of  extortion 
and  cynical  unbelief.    In  the  light  of  an  American  pro- 


NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD?    7 

letariat  so  slavish,  and  a  farming  population  large  seg- 
ments of  which  are  slumping  into  peasanthood,  we  can 
confidently  affirm  that  the  world  would  be  better  off  if 
birth  control  had  been  practised  on  Alexander  Hamilton 
before  he  was  begun.  Once  awakened  from  the  dollar- 
dollar  mania  that  is  oppressing  us  Hke  a  nightmare,  we 
will  perceive  that  the  Potomac  River  episode  in  our 
history  was  chiefly  one  of  grandiose  triviahty;  and  which 
we  will  gladly  permit  to  sHp  into  merciful  obHvion. 

America  promises  to  be  the  next  menace  to  the  peace 
of  the  world.  In  an  Associated  Press  despatch  from 
Tokio  I  read  that  the  Osaka  Mainichi,  in  an  article  setting 
forth  the  attitude  of  many  Japanese  thinkers,  speaks  of 
"the  American  wolf,  whose  wolfish  ambition  is  indeed  to 
be  feared."  Again,  from  another  quarter:  "We  South 
Americans  do  not  understand  all  this  anxiety  of  the 
Samaritan  American  politicians  about  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine. We  do  not  ask  for  any  mantle  of  protection.  If 
in  the  near  past  we  entertained  any  fear  from  outside 
aggression,  it  was  from  the  United  States,  and  not  from 
any  European  power.  Who  has  absorbed  an  immense 
territory  that  once  belonged  to  Mexico?  Who  has  an- 
nexed the  Sandwich  Islands?  Who  is  holding  Santo 
Domingo  by  force?"  And  now,  from  Rio  Janeiro,  comes 
an  article  by  Albuquerque,  a  leading  journahst  of  Brazil. 
He  accuses  the  United  States  of  "fomenting  revolutions 
in  Mexico,"  and  says:  "The  United  States  will  do  to 
Brazil  as  she  has  done  to  Central  America  nations."  He 
adds:  "The  United  States  incontestably  is  the  Pi-ussia  of 
tomorrow."  Commercialized  Christendom  is  heading 
towards  another  war;  which  will  be  as  much  more  ter- 
rible than  the  recent  War,  as  that  was  more  terrible 
than  the  one  that  preceded  it;  with  new  implements  of 
slaughter,  Hquid  flames,  poison  gases,  aye,  disease  germs 


8  THE  FREE  CITY 

cultivated  in  huge  laboratories  —  all  the  panoply  of 
destruction  let  loose  by  the  unevangelized  science  of  our 
mammonistic  age;  a  destruction  so  catastrophic  that 
victor  and  victim  will  go  down  in  an  equal  disaster. 
From  present  indications,  that  next  war  is  not  more  than 
a  decade  off.  Unless  we  can  institute  a  social  fabric 
based  on  neighborhood  instead  of  nationhood,  it  is  all  up 
with  us.  We  have  only  about  ten  years  in  which  to  save 
the  world. 

Small  states,  by  the  straitness  of  the  girdling  frontier, 
constrain  the  population  into  solidarity.  Large  states, 
on  the  other  hand,  permit  the  Haves  and  the  Have-nots 
to  fly  apart  into  warring  classes.  America,  being  larger 
than  any  other,  is  more  interiorly  divided  than  any  other. 
Where  else  is  brotherhood  so  tragically  a  stranger?  where 
else  are  the  people  spht  so  sharply  into  cHques  and  sects 
and  racial  groups?  It  is  time  we  put  falsity  far  from  us 
and  faced  facts.  The  melting  pot  is  not  melting.  Nor 
can  it.  A  pot  as  big  as  all  out-doors  is  not  a  melting  pot; 
cannot  be  brought  to  the  boiling  pwint,  where  alone  a 
chemical  fusion  takes  place.  Our  soldiers  in  the  War 
wrote  home  in  46  different  languages.  When  the  new- 
comers among  us  were  few,  they  were  perforce  swept  into 
the  dominant  type.  But  now  that  their  numbers  are 
great,  they  are  forming  each  a  kingdom  by  itself;  im- 
peria  in  imperio.  The  "Union"  we  boast  so  loudly,  is 
the  most  disunited  thing:  a  disharmony  that  resounds 
with  an  ever  more  rasping  note,  as  our  wealth  augments 
to  multiply  the  ostentations  of  the  rich  and  the  covetous- 
ness  of  the  poor. 

Our  present  scheme  is  coming  to  an  end  because  it  is 
too  difficult.  The  attempt  to  govern  three  thousand 
miles  of  people  from  one  spot,  has  involved  Washington 
in  so  tangled  a  web  of  evasion  and  contradictions,  that 


NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD?   9 

now  it  sits  dazed,  irresolute,  palsied.  Potomac  bureau- 
crats should  awaken  our  sympathy  instead  of  our  wrath. 
A  campaign  of  investigation  into  their  blunders  during 
the  War,  is  being  started.  To  put  men  in  so  unnatural  a 
position,  and  then  ask  of  them  efficiency,  is  to  demand 
what  the  human  frame  is  not  equal  to.  A  tired  over- 
worked president;  and  a  hundred  miUion  other  Ameri- 
cans loafing  on  the  job! 

The  Free  City,  by  contrast,  is  the  easy  method;  it 
awakes  the  people  to  do  their  own  governing;  instead  of 
depending  on  prefects  sent  from  Washington,  and  swivel 
chairs  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Our  nation  is  gov- 
ernment by  the  rich,  of  the  rich,  and  for  the  rich.  An 
artificial  apparatus,  it  requires  a  plexus  of  ropes  and  cords 
and  wires;  machine  that  has  grown  more  and  more  com- 
plicated, until  now  it  is  breaking  down  by  reason  of 
impossible  clumsiness.  Free  government  needs  no  elab- 
oration of  political  devices.  Directorship  of  a  community 
by  the  people  who  live  in  that  conmiunity,  is  the  com- 
monsense  method.  A  return  to  the  Free  City  will  be  a 
return  to  the  simplified  life. 

The  League  of  Nations  has  at  least  done  this  much: 
It  has  tolled  the  knell  of  nationality.  There  were  those 
who  thought  nations  to  be  in  perpetuity;  with  London, 
Paris,  Washington  henceforth  as  the  everlasting  arbiters 
of  man's  fate.  But  Geneva,  usurping  those  thrones  of 
sovereignty,  has  called  in  question  that  entire  scheme  of 
things;  and  nowhere  more  emphatically  than  in  smug 
phiHstine  America.  The  District  of  Columbia  is  a  fiat 
city;  has  no  advantages  of  scenery  or  shipping  or  situa- 
tion or  natural  resources.  It  was  founded  purely  to  be 
the  seat  of  poHtioal  lordship.  Therefore  when  that  is 
wrested  from  her,  or  when  her  prerogative  is  even  called 
in  question  (so  sensitive  a  plant  is  sovereignty),  she  is 


10  THE  FREE  CITY 

bereaved  indeed.  Washington  was  built  as  the  capital  of 
a  nation  that  should  be  based  on  the  idea  of  bigness. 
The  local  governments  protested  against  that  usurpation. 
They  pleaded:  "A  state  should  not  be  too  big."  "Tut, 
tut,"  said  the  Potomac,  "the  bigger  the  better,  the  bigger 
the  better";  and  grew  fat  at  their  expense.  Now  Geneva 
proceeds  to  grow  fat  at  her  expense.  "No,  no,"  protests 
the  Potomac,  in  the  person  of  the  senatorial  barons;  "a 
state  should  not  be  too  big."  "Tut,  tut,"  says  Geneva; 
"bigger  the  better";  and  she  takes  over  the  sovereignty. 
Because  —  don't  you  see?  —  if  size  be  the  criterion  of 
perfectness,  then  a  world-sized  state  is  more  perfect  than 
a  state  of  only  continental  size.  When  once  the  neigh- 
borhood-state is  given  up,  and  a  nation-state  begins,  there 
is  then  no  stopping  place  until  the  supernation,  embrac- 
ing all  mankind,  is  erected.  Whereupon  the  structure 
falls  apart  by  its  own  weight.  "Bigger-the-better" 
built  Washington.  And  now  "Bigger-the-better"  will 
gobble  her  up. 

The  passing  of  the  Potomac  clears  the  field  for  muni- 
cipaUty.  Geneva  translates  the  concrete  nationalisms 
that  so  balefully  have  plagued  the  world,  into  a  vague 
and  fluid  cosmopolitanism.  This  presents  to  our  cities  a 
welcome  liberation.  The  municipaUty  heretofore  has 
been  in  eclipse.  Central  Government  bulked  so  large 
that  the  cities  were  but  administrative  tools  of  the  Poto- 
mac absolutism;  were  not  permitted  to  have  personaUties 
of  their  own.  Now  however  that  national  feehng  is  on 
its  death  bed,  municipal  feeling  can  arise.  "A  new  day 
shines  upon  us."  Sober  minds  will  hardly  contend  that 
this  new  day  is  to  witness  the  seat  of  government  trans- 
ferred to  the  capital  of  a  world  empire,  with  the  breadth 
of  waters  spreading  between  us  and  a  World  Committee 
dictating  our  destiny.    Rather,  it  should  see  the  seat  of 


NEIGHBORHOOD  OR  NATIONHOOD?   11 

goverament  brought  back  to  the  communities,  where  we 
of  the  conmion  people  have  our  habitation.  This  all- 
fluid  day  invites  to  an  overhauKng  of  our  political  ideas. 

Home  rule  is  freedom;  delegated  rule  is  the  robbery  of 
freedom.  When,  out  of  the  wide  waste  and  mud  of  our 
planet,  a  Free  City  pushes  up  into  being,  it  is  in  the  sight 
of  The  Eternal,  as  when  a  gardener  discovers  a  green 
shoot  pricking  up  out  of  a  seed  bed  that  he  had  given  up 
as  hopeless.  Better  a  poor  type  of  government,  ad- 
ministered by  a  community  for  itself,  than  a  mechanically 
perfect  government  administered  for  them.  If  we  don't 
have  Free  Cities,  we  will  have  Servile  Cities.  Freedom 
is  self-determination.  A  Servile  City  is  one  whose  gov- 
erning is  done  outside  her  borders.  A  Free  City  attends 
to  her  own  governing;  gives  the  back  of  her  hand  to  any 
power  suggesting  to  take  over  these  functions  for  her. 
They  only  who  Uve  in  a  Free  City,  are  free.  Folk  of  a 
Servile  City  are  servile. 

Not  the  nation,  and  not  the  supernation,  but  the  munic- 
ipality is  life's  natural  pivot;  the  nucleating  center  of 
a  worthy  world-system.  The  noble  eras  have  always 
been  those  wherein  city  hall  was  the  focus  of  man's  orbit 
and  his  organ  of  commimication  with  the  outside  world. 
The  people  are  not  saved  by  government  but  by  govern- 
ing. If  it  was  done  in  Washington,  it  was  done  wrong. 
E  Pluribus  Unum.  We  have  overdone  the  Unum  busi- 
ness.   Shall  we  not  talk  PlurUms  for  a  while? 


CHAPTER   n 

MUNICIPAL  COMMUNION  IS  THE  LIGHT 
OF  GENIUS 

COMMUNITY  means,  Communion;  the  Com- 
mmiity  States  in  history  have  begotten  in  their 
people  a  quaUty  of  warmth  and  affection  not  seen 
under  other  political  forms.  How  large  a  commune  — 
community  —  should  be,  there  is  no  rule  of  thumb  to 
determine.  It  is  a  grouping  larger  than  the  family  and 
smaller  than  the  nation.  On  one  side  of  it  stretch  the 
family  and  the  individual;  on  the  other  side,  the  nation 
and  the  world;  with  the  Commune  reposing  square  in 
the  human  center.  The  Conmiunistic  (municipal)  prin- 
ciple is  strong  on  federation,  but  is  in  deadly  feud  with 
consolidation.  Its  devotees  have  received  the  name, 
citizens,  "folk  of  a  Free  City."  Citizenship  is  the  cult  of 
the  city  state.  That  is  where  the  word  derived,  and  has 
been  its  grand  historical  meaning. 

Let  not  the  term  city  commonwealth  suggest  indif- 
ference to  rural  life.  A  first  result  of  Free  Cities  is  to 
bring  the  farmer  out  of  his  obscurity  and  celebrate  him 
as  the  cornerstone  of  the  st.ate;  for  without  self-subsist- 
ence a  community  cannot  enjoy  self -ownership.  In 
Athens,  two-thirds  of  the  citizens  lived  in  the  country- 
side. The  Bible,  that  biography  of  the  Jerusalem  munic- 
ipaUty,  is  intersprinkled  with  allusions  to  shepherds  and 

olive  groves,  running  waters,  green  pastures,  oil  and  com 

12 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  13 

and  vineyards.  We  are  in  an  age  of  nationalism;  that  is, 
of  large  commercial  states.  And  seldom  before  was  rural 
life  in  so  low  estimation. 

Moderns  look  back  upon  the  classic  world  with  envy 
and  despair.  Jerusalem,  Greece,  Rome  —  with  what  an 
uncontested  celebrity  those  names  shine  above  the  wreck- 
age of  the  years!  A  lustre  attaches  to  them;  a  glory  that 
has  been  continuously  triumphant,  and  which  has  since 
departed  from  the  earth.  The  mind  of  man  in  that  day 
seems  to  have  been  cast  in  an  ampler  mold,  and  his  veins 
flowed  richer  blood.  The  thought  will  protrude  that 
Heaven  had  but  a  limited  store  of  good  clay;  so  that  we 
moderns  are  compounded  of  second-rate  material,  the 
left-overs  after  the  prime  stuff  had  been  used  up,  Plato, 
Socrates,  Cato,  Virgil,  Isaiah  —  folk  to-day  do  not  even 
aspire  to  an  equivalence  with  them.  They  were  creators, 
whilst  we  are  imitators.  The  capacity  to  strike  out  new 
paths,  discover  new  continents  in  the  mental  universe, 
has  been  lost.  We  have  talent.  But  they  had  genius. 
They  gave  us  the  seed,  from  which  we  painstakingly  grow 
the  plants.  The  hills  of  Attica  seem  to  have  been  closer 
to  the  sky  than  Alleghany  tops  or  the  Sierra  Nevadas. 
There  is  a  surmise  that  God  is  an  oriental,  and  feels  at 
home  only  under  Syrian  stars. 

Theories  are  advanced  to  explain  our  inferiority  to 
that  classic  world.  Some  say  it  was  due  to  accident: 
Destiny  threw  double-sixes  once,  and  cannot  cog  the  dice 
so  as  to  repeat  the  performance.  More  serious  minds  ex- 
plain the  classic  supereminence  as  due  to  the  exuberant 
vitality  of  youth:  The  world  was  fresh,  humankind  was 
young,  and  earth  was  nearer  heaven  than  now.  Classic 
man  lived  his  Ufe  on  a  plane  of  poetry  and  lyrical  ec- 
stasies; a  perfect  daring,  noble  visionings,  sustained  en- 
thusiasms.   So   that   grand   demeanor   and   bibles   and 


14  ,THE  FREE  CITY 

architecture  and  codes  of  equity  rushed  up  to  a  majesty 
of  power  beyond  what  we  can  hope  to  attain.  Earth 
wears  the  Parthenon  as  the  proudest  gem  upon  her  zone, 
and  morning  opes  with  haste  her  Hds  to  gaze  upon  the 
Pyramids;  because  they  who  wrought  the  parthenons 
and  pyramids  were  in  the  youthtime  of  the  race,  and  so 
wrought  wondrously. 

It  is  an  explanation.  But,  were  it  to  go  unchallenged, 
would  it  not  curse  a  plague  of  pessimism  on  all  futurity? 
If  our  inferiority  to  the  ancients  be  due  to  advancing 
years,  —  the  prose  of  staid  maturity  as  contrasted  with 
the  romancings  of  life  at  twenty,  —  then  the  earth  story 
is  writ  in  a  descending  curve.  We  are  more  decrepit  than 
our  predecessors.  They  who  come  after  us  wUl  be  more 
decrepit  than  we  —  the  lag  end  of  the  drama,  a  tale  dron- 
ing on  ever  more  wearily  to  its  finis.  Is  it  a  heartening 
thought  to  you  that  our  lines  have  fallen  in  the  declining 
years  of  the  world,  and  that  mankind  now  will  dodder  on 
to  an  old  age  of  lassitude  and  senile  decay? 

Pohtical  science  brings  us  gladder  tidings.  We  have 
lapsed  from  the  spirituality  of  the  ancients,  because  we 
have  lapsed  from  their  poUty  of  state.  The  classic  world 
was  a  network  of  municipal  republics.  They  recognized 
no  other  pohtical  form.  Commimity  self-rulership,  with 
a  jealousy  that  tolerated  no  "delegates"  and  "representa- 
tives"—  this  imitation  democracy  that  we  moderns  are 
so  proud  to  have  hit  upon  —  was  with  those  Mediter- 
ranean folk  the  fixed  center  of  their  thinking.  From  that, 
all  of  their  grandeur,  all  of  their  mental  emiaence  and 
artistic  genius  took  its  fertilizing  flow. 

The  Gothic  age  was  another  period  of  genius.  And 
that  time  of  outflowering  was  also  a  period  of  Free  Cities. 
Municipal  commonwealths  have  written  the  romance  into 
what  otherwise  had  been  the  annals  of  a  dull  and  prosy 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  15 

planet.  We  should  get  well  quit  of  that  division  of  the 
centuries  into  "Ancient,  Medieval  and  Modern."  All  of 
the  centuries,  under  whatsoever  cHme  or  meridian,  are 
in  one  of  two  divisions,  the  Luminous  Ages  and  the  Dull 
Ages.  The  Luminous  Ages  have  always  been  ages  of 
citizenship;  that  is,  of  city  statehoods.  And  the  Dull 
Ages,  such  as  our  own,  have  been  eras  when  mankind  has 
tried  some  other  poUtical  form. 

Some  will  object  that  our  day  is  commercial,  transport- 
ing commodities  across  a  wide  area;  so  that  big  national 
states  now  are  necessary.  But  the  abohtion  of  frontiers 
is  not  requisite  to  the  interchange  of  traffic.  Between 
New  York  and  Montreal  proceeds  daily  a  flow  of  goods 
and  passengers.  When  states  mutually  wish  the  goods 
of  each  other,  exchanges  are  easily  perfected.  True,  the 
presence  of  a  frontier  is  an  obstacle  to  freest  come  and  go. 
But  so  is  a  door  on  a  man's  house.  Municipal  states  do 
not  regard  commerce  as  the  end  of  existence,  or  even  as 
the  chief  of  life's  desirables.  You  shall  not  enter  into 
an  understanding  of  Athens  or  Rome  the  Republic,  or 
Jerusalem  or  Florence,  or  of  Nuremburg  and  her  sister 
communes  in  that  picturesque  Gothic  time,  unless  you 
purge  your  mind  of  this  poison  of  modernity,  get  a  quite 
different  critique  of  life.  The  city  conamonwealth  sounds 
like  merely  a  proposal  to  change  our  political  estabUsh- 
ment.  But  this  change  carries  with  it  an  acquisition  of 
a  new  set  of  values,  a  shift  from  prose  into  poetry,  from 
talent  into  genius;  a  transfer  of  our  habitat  from  a  com- 
mercial civilization  over  into  an  artistic  civihzation. 

Municipality  is  a  spiritual  organism,  bulwark  of  free- 
dom and  labor.  The  Free  City!  It  is  a  word  of  royal 
tone,  smacking  of  elegance,  tranquillity,  manners,  the 
brightest  glory.  But  also  it  is  an  austere  word,  of  very 
thunderous   intonation    if   things   be   not   according   to 


16  THE  FREE  CITY 

equity.  Whenever  that  word  "Commune"  has  sounded 
on  the  lips  of  the  workingclass,  mammon  and  his  cohorts 
have  been  stricken  with  a  nervous  chill,  MunicipaUty  is 
labor's  almighty  redeemer.  Review  the  Communes  of 
history,  you  shall  see  the  aproned  bricklayer,  the  smutched 
blacksmith,  down  to  the  begrimed  porter  and  drayman 
of  the  gutter,  as  public  characters  with  a  statesmanly 
participation  in  government.  They  were  not  "hands"; 
they  were  humans,  and  drinking  large  draughts  of  in- 
tellectual deHght.  Co-partnership  in  the  state  awoke 
manliness  within  them,  shaped  their  fingers  to  subtle 
craftsmanship,  elevated  the  mechanic  into  artistry.  "  Re- 
public" means  a  state  whose  people  interest  themselves 
in  public  affairs.  Only  small  states  can  be  republics. 
When  the  seat  of  government  is  many  miles  removed 
from  his  home,  a  man  will  not  take  a  daily  and  enthusias- 
tic interest  in  that  government.  MunicipaUty  and  de- 
mocracy, twinned  in  the  same  womb,  are  one  and  in- 
separable. Communal  self-government  makes  the  people 
public  hearted.  Representative  government  makes  the 
people  private  hearted.  Here  is  the  fester  spot;  mod- 
ernity's deep  and  ulcerating  cancer.  Along  with  parent- 
hood and  love-making,  government  is  a  function  that 
cannot  be  delegated.  They  who  do  so  forfeit  their  human 
status.  To  recall  the  labor  movement  from  class  con- 
sciousness back  into  civic  consciousness,  will  not  be 
dangerous. 

The  present  posture  of  the  world  is  the  dangerous  thing. 
I  do  not  prophesy  a  convulsive  time  coming.  The  con- 
vulsion is  here.  We  are  in  the  most  humihating  moment 
since  time  began.  What  think  you  of  a  Christendom 
that  has  been  spending  in  mutual  slaughter  a  sum  daily 
that  would  build  two  score  universities?  Nationahsm 
was  the   distinctive   pohty   of  the   nineteenth   century. 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  17 

And  our  fratricidal  day  is  the  result.  War  is  the  castiga- 
tion  of  our  economic  offendings.  In  contrast  with  the 
artistic  eras,  a  commercial  age  craves  quantity  —  turns 
out  goods  "cheaply."  But  does  not  miUtarism  add  ter- 
ribly to  the  cost?  Nations  are  obsolete,  in  that  to  main- 
tain themselves  they  require  such  an  enormous  amount  of 
killing.  Never  before  was  nationaUsm  —  big  states  — 
so  regnant.  And  never  before  did  mankind  he  in  such  a 
soak  of  blood. 

Like  fire  lanes  in  the  forest  to  prevent  the  spread  of 
conflagrations,  so  are  frontiers;  they  keep  a  war  from 
spreading  into  a  world  war.  If  the  fire  lanes  are  broad 
and  clean,  no  fire  can  grow  into  a  conflagration.  An  era 
of  city  commonwealths  is  never  militaristic.  When 
citizens  have  in  their  own  hands  the  diplomatic  and  the 
war-declaring  machinery,  they  settle  disputes  by  amicable 
processes.  During  the  nearly  five  hundred  years  of  their 
existence,  the  Hanseatic  League  of  Free  Cities  did  not 
once  draw  the  sword  in  aggression.  But  under  Bismarck 
the  Germans  apostatized  to  the  prince  of  this  world. 
Then,  from  the  most  pacific  of  peoples,  they  became  the 
swaggerer.  Here  is  a  letter  written  from  Franlcfort-on- 
the-Main  in  1867:  "Until  last  year  this  city,  as  well  as 
many  others,  including  Hamburg,  Mayence,  Wiesbaden, 
Homburg,  were  entirely  separate  from  the  Prussian 
territory.  Certain  of  the  cities  were  free,  and  others  be- 
longed to  httle  duchies.  Last  summer  Prussia  gobbled 
up  all  the  Httle  fellows  and  sent  their  governments  to  the 
four  winds.  Deep  is  the  feeling  of  resentment.  Frank- 
fort has  been  a  free  city  for  hundreds  of  years;  and  now, 
to  be  made  a  mere  speck  on  the  map,  is  not  agreeable. 
Bismarck  is  universally  hated  among  the  Frankfurters." 

It  will  be  objected  that  the  Free  City,  whilst  an  exalted 
ideaHsm,  is  too  ethereal  for  life's  hurly-burly;  municipality 


18  THE  FREE  CITY 

needs  to  swell  into  nationality,  because  mere  size  is  an 
asset  in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  this  cock-pit  called 
Earth.  Yes.  And  city  commonwealths  achieve  size; 
but  by  the  principle  of  federation,  not  by  consolidation. 
The  thirteen  American  colonies,  federating,  triumphed 
over  the  British  Empire.  Thirty-six  years  later,  in  the 
War  of  1812,  they  fought  that  Empire  again;  but  now 
they  were  a  consohdated  nation  —  and  they  were  de- 
feated. Pohtical  evolution  does  not  mean  that  the  small 
state  shall  grow  into  a  big  state,  but  that  the  small  state 
shall  grow  ever  more  inteUigent,  noble,  and  artistic. 
Evolution  usually  takes  the  form  of  a  decrease  in  bulk  and 
an  increase  in  brains.  The  scale  of  ascending  degrees  is 
not  from  municipal  into  national;  but  from  municipaUty 
into  a  federation  of  municipalities.  That  designs  an  elastic 
meshwork  illimitable  in  its  reach;  and  not  to  be  broken, 
seeing  that  the  parts  are  jointed  by  ligaments  that  are 
entirely  flexible.  The  railroad  and  the  telegraph  have 
made  possible  now  a  world  confederation,  but  should  not 
be  misused  unto  world  consohdation,  wherein  localisms 
and  refreshing  diversity  would  be  swallowed  up  in  a 
world-wide  intolerable  sameness. 

Democracy  is  self-government.  Nationalism  is  repre- 
sentative government.  The  two  are  separated  by  a 
cosmic  diameter.  Only  an  indifferent  and  docile  folk  will 
consent  to  representative  government;  and  that  pohtical 
form  makes  them  ever  more  indifferent,  ever  more  docile 
—  a  descensus  avemo  proceeding  with  progressive  ac- 
celeration. In  the  purHeus  of  invisible  diplomacy  the 
Dark  Forces  nest  themselves;  whose  silent  depredations 
are  hushed  and  horrible  as  a  gas  attack  in  the  night. 
Downing  Street,  Wilhebnstrasse,  Quai  d'Orsay,  State 
Department  on  Potomac  banks  —  where  you  will  —  dip- 
lomacy under  representative  government  is  shrouded  in 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  19 

veils  of  inscrutabiKty.  How  wide  a  gulf  sunders  be- 
tween an  imaginary  democracy  and  an  imaginative 
democracy! 

I  hold  that  the  travail  and  brow-sweat  of  mankind 
through  generations  of  generations  have  established  cer- 
tain masterful  and  basic  principles;  and  that,  of  these, 
self-government  is  chief.  At  once  I  am  deafened  by 
moderns :  * '  Self-government !  You  mean  that  each  munic- 
ipal grouping,  in  sovereign  and  primary  assembly,  shall 
have  a  pohtical  status  in  questions  of  peace  and  war,  and 
in  accrediting  ambassadors?  But  that  would  require  all 
of  us  to  be  conversant  with  pubhc  affairs  and  to  partici- 
pate therein.  Our  private  interests  will  not  afford  us 
leisure  for  engrossment  in  public  interests.  We  prefer  to 
have  our  governing  done  for  us.  We  haven't  time  for 
self-government." 

Suppose  an  Athenian  heard  that.  Would  it  not  move 
him  to  an  exclamatory  burst:  ''Haven't  time  for  self- 
government!  But,  my  dear  sir,  what  else  is  time  for? 
SeK-rulership  is  a  heritage  whose  dignities  are  not  to  be 
alienated.  Animals  lead  a  private  life;  that  is  why 
they  are  animals.  Humans  are  summoned  to  a  public 
consciousness,  to  a  joint  magistracy  and  stewardship  over 
the  Commune.  Think  not  that  it  is  a  cheap  or  trivial 
commodity,  this  prize  of  self-government  that  you  are 
so  Ustlessly  throwing  away.  We  ancients  fought  for  it; 
at  Thermopylse  and  Marathon,  paid  a  price  for  it.  It  is 
the  wellhead  from  which  the  world  has  derived  civility, 
justice,  self-command,  beauty,  letters,  philosophy;  all  of  the 
useful,  all  of  the  decorative  arts.  The  citizen  state  is  the 
organizer  of  fellowship  into  concrete  reaUty  —  fellowship, 
whose  mighty  fire  and  scintillation  is  the  principle  of  all 
existence,  the  radical  plasm  and  essence  of  our  being. 
'Representative   government!'    Probably  the   most   ig- 


20  THE  FREE  CITY 

noble,  sinister,  and  squalid  of  political  forms!  Private 
business  has  no  business  to  get  in  the  way  of  public  busi- 
ness. You  say  you  have  no  time  for  self-government; 
you  cast  it  aside  as  a  careless  trifle,  and  devote  yourself 
to  life's  bric-a-brac.  Harken  to  one  who  speaks  the 
hived  wisdom  of  ten  thousand  vanished  years:  A  people 
that  takes  time  from  self-government  to  give  to  other 
pursuits,  will  find  in  the  day  of  their  disillusionment  that 
those  other  pursuits  were  not  worth  giving  time  to. 
Democracy  is  the  dearest-valued  gift  vouchsafed  of 
Heaven." 

The  hmried  and  frowzy  thing  we  moderns  call  Ufe,  is 
not  life,  and  will  not  long  be  even  existence.  The  tor- 
rential times  that  are  bursting  upon  the  world  apprize 
us  that  man  was  made  for  beauty,  and  will  not  be  at  rest 
until  he  rests  in  beauty.  Nationality  has  supplanted 
municipaUty;  the  wild  waste  of  years  that  have  super- 
vened are  landing  us  in  a  squat  and  earthy  secularism. 
These  bournes  of  mediocrity  are  not  only  unexhilarating, 
they  are  perilous.  The  soul  of  man  is  created  for  splen- 
dours. And  when  splendours  are  denied  it,  convulsions  of 
the  state  are  the  pathologic  admonitory  symptoms. 
Nationahty  is  now  in  the  saddle.  And  never  were  the 
members  of  mankind  so  at  variance.  The  money  power 
and  the  mob  —  two  cats  tied  together  by  their  tails  and 
flung  over  a  wash  line.  Black  care  is  on  the  faces  of  the 
people.  A  sense  of  insecurity.  Joy  is  become  an  alien. 
The  present  is  a  scheme  of  disunion.  Fellowship  is  not 
on  the  increase.  Greed  is  on  the  increase.  And  it  is 
acting  Uke  the  magnetic  mountain  in  the  Arabian  Nights 
tale,  that  drew  the  nails  and  bolts  from  out  the  planks 
of  the  ship.  There  have  been  Dull  Ages  before  this. 
But  I  doubt  if  any  of  them  was  more  joyless  than  is  ours. 
They  were  as  bereft  of  fellowship  as  we.    But  at  least  it 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  21 

was  not  a  mechanistic  joylessness  to  maintain  which 
they  had  to  devote  anxious  days  and  nights  of  sleepless 
care.  They  too  had  paralysis  of  the  heart  strings.  But 
they  were  spared  a  huge  materiahstic  clutter  that  sits 
upon  our  bosoms  hke  a  nightmare.  They  had  their  wars; 
but  not  the  machine-made  annihihstic  thing  we  behold, 
when  the  mercantile  cut-throatings  ripen  into  military 
throat-cuttings.  MateriaUsm  is  not  justified  of  her 
children. 

The  community  state  is  a  co-operative  workshop. 
Good  will  and  conciHation  is  the  temper  in  which  all  of 
its  doings  are  wrought.  Instances  that  have  a  squint  to 
the  contrary  will  be  found.  Which  is  to  say,  a  perfect 
municipal  repubhc  has  never  yet  appeared.  Only  eternity 
will  be  long  enough  to  bring  perfection.  The  Luminous 
Ages  differ  from  the  Dull  Ages,  not  in  being  luminous 
with  an  absolute  illumination;  but  in  being  more  bril- 
liant —  and  noticeably  more  brilhant  —  than  the  Dull 
Ages. 

The  ferocious  egoisms  now  rending  the  social  fabric 
have  got  to  be  brought  under.  Nationahty  cannot  do  it. 
And  for  a  reason.  The  nation  is  as  much  too  large  as  the 
individual  is  too  small.  The  area  of  the  state  must  be 
no  wider  than  the  individual  can  expand  into  and  fill  with 
his  presence.  Municipality  is  that  area.  It  is  the  focal 
point  where  private  interest  and  public  interest  coincide. 
In  the  community,  we  five  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
To  serve  her  is  in  truest  sense  serving  ourselves. 

The  Free  City  is  more  than  a  city.  It  becomes  a  piety, 
a  spiritual  adventure,  a  mysticism;  aye,  a  love  story,  for 
the  feminine  quahty  of  grace  and  lovehness  is  ever  an 
accompaniment  of  communalistic  fife,  and  for  want  of 
which  in  materiaUst  modernity,  womanhood  is  justly 
rebellious.    MunicipaUty    passes    into    a    transcendental 


22  THE  FREE  CITY 

region  of  thought.  It  formulates  a  metaphysic  of  the 
universe.  Municipal  communion  is  the  incubator  of 
genius.  When  a  man  turns  from  self-glorification  to 
city-glorification,  think  you  a  small  thing  has  happened? 
I  tell  you,  that  is  the  miracle  of  miracles,  which,  when  it 
has  arrived,  brings  all  other  miracles  in  its  train.  Thereby 
the  ego  is  raised  to  a  supernormal  plane  of  being,  taps 
new  levels  of  energy,  is  capacitated  beyond  man's  con- 
stitutional endowment.  City  worship  is  the  rehgion 
that  will  make  skepticism  ridiculous. 

These  times  are  inclined  to  kiss  the  lips  of  innovation. 
We  hear  much  of  a  New  Rehgion,  New  Thought,  a  New 
Church,  a  New  Path.  A  restiveness  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Society,  pining  on  so  grievous  a  bed  of  sickness, 
turns  to  any  doctor  that  holds  out  hope.  Numerous  are 
the  new-fangled  medicines  being  offered.  Municipahty 
has  this  to  recommend  it:  he  is  an  old-fashioned  doctor, 
has  no  patent  medicines,  no  recipes  or  drugs  of  recent 
discovery,  nothing  but  simples  that  have  been  long  and 
and  brilliantly  tested.  Experimental  remedies  —  these 
curiously  devised  programs  —  do  but  heighten  the  dis- 
temper. 

Municipahty  is  the  publisher  of  peace  to  a  world  that 
now  has  the  smell  of  a  slaughter  house.  In  her  liberal 
keeping  all  of  the  interests  of  Hfe  are  secure.  Property  is 
a  false  god.  The  populace  is  equally  a  false  god.  The 
Free  City,  taking  them  each  by  a  hand,  leads  them  in  a 
single  path  to  a  common  goal.  It  is  the  blend  of  material- 
ity and  ideaUty.  Nicely  it  tempers  and  balances  the 
alloy  as  to  those  opposing  ingredients.  In  small  states 
rehgion  flourishes;  in  big  states  it  pines  into  a  languish- 
ing death. 

An  intercontinental  federation  of  little  repubhcs  — 
there  is  the  only  poUtical  form  commensurate  with  the 


THE  LIGHT  OF  GENIUS  23 

totality  of  the  human  species.  Because  its  one  adaman- 
tine dogma  is,  The  right  to  be  different.  Municipality  is 
the  categorical  and  Godly  jurisprudence:  a  communion 
of  Free  Cities,  present  on  all  shores,  comprehending  all 
islands  and  all  continents,  conforming  to  all  tongues  and 
climates  and  topographies.  A  fellowship  in  liberal  divers- 
ity encompassing  the  globe. 


CHAPTER   III 

CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP 

THE  city  state  snuggles  into  the  landscape.  It 
belongs  to  natural  history.  This  fact  is  primary, 
quintessential;  the  rudiment  from  which  all  of  the 
other  facts  take  their  form  and  texture.  Of  all  the 
peoples  that  developed  municipahty  as  their  mode  of  the 
social  union,  the  Greeks  were  the  chiefest.  In  their 
Uterature  and  art  they  painted  a  picture  to  point  the 
truth  I  am  here  proclaiming.  It  was  the  story  of  Giant 
Antaeus,  son  of  Mother  Earth.  Mightiest  of  the  mighty 
was  he,  so  long  as  his  feet  were  touching  the  ground;  in 
mystic  fashion  the  strength  of  the  soil  seeped  up  into  his 
members  like  sap  into  a  rooted  oak.  He  had  an  enemy. 
In  every  encounter  between  the  two,  Antseus  was  the 
victor;  the  energies  welling  up  into  him  from  rock  and 
turf  and  loam,  put  power  into  his  ankle  bones.  One 
luckless  day,  however,  that  enemy  learned  the  secret. 
Thereupon,  in  a  wrestle,  he  manoeuvered  so  as  to  lift 
Antseus  from  the  ground;  and  then  easily  conquered 
him. 

That  parable  enshrines  the  philosophy  of  city  repub- 
lics; the  cause  of  their  security  and  the  secret  of  their 
overthrow.  Under  barbarism,  the  city  is  sacrificed  to 
the  country.  Under  nationalism,  the  country  is  sacri- 
ficed to  the  city.     Under  municipalism,  the  two  advance 

hand  in  hand.     Orchard  city,  is  a  fit  name  for  the  citizen 

24 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    25 

commonwealth  in  its  perfection;  rm-al  metropolis:  a 
mmiicipality  of  milk  and  honey.  In  this  natural  form  of 
state,  the  farm  articulates  with  the  marketplace;  so  that 
countrjonan  and  townsman  are  not  two  separate  classes, 
but  the  same  man  is  both.  A  municipal  fabric  of  state 
puts  a  world  capital  in  the  midst  of  every  farming  district. 
That  metropoUs  is  reachable  by  the  husbandmen  from 
the  fields  round  about;  hke  Cincinnatus,  leaving  his  plow 
and  giving  himself  to  affairs  of  state,  thence  to  return  to 
his  flocks  and  fields.  It  brings  governorship  within  the 
competency  of  the  handworker,  expands  him  into  a  citizen 
of  the  world.  In  city  commonwealths  the  ruling  order  is 
limited  to  the  laboring  and  useful  classes.  At  Athens, 
Solon  directed  that  a  man  who  did  not  work  should  be 
deprived  of  his  poHtical  rights.  The  Israel  state  insisted 
that  every  boy,  whether  the  scion  of  wealthy  parents  or 
poor,  should  be  bred  to  a  trade.  At  Florence  we  find 
Dante,  son  of  r?ches  and  leisure,  apprenticing  himself  to 
the  Apothecaries'  Guild;  seeing  that  no  one  but  a  mem- 
ber of  some  work  guild  could  possess  citizenly  privileges. 

Moderns  have  the  idea  that  the  poetry  of  Nature  found 
in  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  in  the  Bible,  is 
irrecoverable.  Never  again,  say  these,  can  we  see  wood- 
nymphs  and  water-nymphs,  four-footed  Pan  of  the  forest 
and  the  piping  reeds,  cloud  pillars  by  day  and  fire  pillars 
guiding  by  night,  the  bm-ning  bush,  magi  led  by  the 
beckoning  star.  This  mythology  belonged  to  the  pagan 
view  of  hfe;  a  bewitchingly  engaging  view,  fraught  with 
all  charm  and  loveliness;  but  one  that  can  never  be  re- 
captured. Science  has  made  these  dreamings  of  the 
foretime  forevermore  impossible. 

Not  a  few  of  the  finer  spirits,  feeling  this  loss,  have 
uttered  their  lamentation.  Listen  to  SchiUer,  bemoaning 
the  departed  glory: 


26  THE  FREE  CITY 

Man  ascribed  nobility  to  Nature; 

Rendered  love  unto  the  earth  he  trod. 
Everywhere  his  eye,  illuminated, 

Saw  the  footprints  of  a  god. 
Reft  of  life,  the  meadows  lie  deserted; 

Ne'er  a  Godhead  can  my  fancy  see. 
Ah!    If  only,  of  those  living  colors, 

Lingered  yet  the  ghost  with  me! 

Wordsworth,  wandering  by  the  sea,  meditated  on  the 
glories  an  Athenian  would  have  beheld  in  that  scene, 
glories  withholden  from  his  eyes: 

The  world  is  too  much  with  us;  late  and  soon. 

Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  powers; 

Little  we  see  in  Nature  thai  is  ours. 
We  have  given  our  lives  away,  a  sordid  boon! 
This  sea  that  bares  her  bosom  to  the  moon; 

The  winds  thai  will  be  howling  at  all  hours, 

And  are  upgathered  now  like  sleeping  flowers  — 
For  this,  for  everything,  we  are  out  of  tune. 
It  moves  •ws  not.    Great  God!    Fd  rather  be 

A  pagan,  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn; 
So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 

Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn; 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea, 

Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  we  have  lost  that  once- 
time  intimacy  with  Nature,  because  we  have  discovered 
her  to  be  a  lifeless  mechanism,  governed  by  iron  law. 
That  is  an  inversion  of  the  facts.  We  have  "discovered" 
Nature  to  be  a  lifeless  mechanism,  because  we  lost  that 
oneness  with  her  that  our  ancient  forbears  enjoyed. 
Atheism  is  not  a  formulation  of  the  mind.  Atheism  is  a 
mode  of  Ufe;    an  alienation  from  our  natural  Mother 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    27 

whence  we  derived,  and  on  first-hand  contact  with  whom, 
our  spiritual  health  depends.  Science  had  naught  to  do 
with  the  decay  of  faith.  Science  means  exact  knowledge. 
Think  you  it  is  impossible  to  know  Nature  with  exacti- 
tude, be  acquainted  with  her  habits  so  as  to  predict  all 
of  her  goings;  and  still  cherish  a  blood  relationship  with 
her?  The  mentahty  of  her  may  be  on  a  lower  plane  than 
ours.  But  is  it  not  mentahty  stiU?  and  is  there  not  a 
form  of  consciousness  that  attaches  to  all  being?  Her 
emotional  hfe  may  be  less  intense  than  ours.  But  it  is 
emotion;  a  heartthrob  trembling  in  every  eventide,  and 
a  joy  pulsating  through  all  the  jovial  frame  of  the  morning. 

When  man  gave  up  municipahty  and  its  communal  de- 
hghts,  to  roam  the  world  in  search  of  gain  and  private 
happiness,  he  left  Natiu-e  behind.  Separating  himself 
thus  from  her,  he  began  to  think  he  was  of  a  different 
species  from  her.  Insufferable  prig,  he  fashioned  out  of 
his  self-conceit  a  philosophy  that  assigned  to  him  a  su- 
perior genesis;  a  nativity  quite  other  than  from  her  loins. 
Thereupon  he  looked  down  upon  her  with  top-loftiness. 
This  glorification  of  himself  bred  in  man  the  notion  that 
he  was  free;  by  which  he  meant  capriciousness,  the 
power  of  private  choice;  whereas  Nature^ poor  thing! 
—  is  unfree,  a  mechanistic  complex  swayed  by  absolute 
unvarying  law:  "a  lifeless  mechanical  array  of  inanimate 
forces." 

Darwinism  arrives  to  prick  that  bubble.  Evolution 
announces  that  we  are  not  of  a  different  order  from 
Nature.  She  is  our  mother.  Out  of  her  strong  and 
fecundating  flanks  we  are  sprung.  In  our  lineaments  we 
bear  her  ineffaceable  image.  Man  is  heir  of  all  the  zo- 
ological series.  From  the  earHest  filament  that  crys- 
taUizes  in  the  prenatal  germplasm,  up  through  aquarian 
antics  and  bough-clasping  grasp  of  the  newborn  infant, 


28  THE  FREE  CITY 

and  on  to  adulthood,  we  rehearse  and  epitomize  Hfe's 
thundering  procession  up  the  ages.  A  man's  biography  is 
the  world's  history.  We  are  related  by  ties  of  blood  to 
all  animals  and  all  vegetables. 

The  pagan  world  was  poetic  because  it  sensed  this 
truth  which  evolution  is  now  revealing  to  the  tardy  in- 
tellect. Those  children  of  the  soil  felt  the  family  kinship. 
Perceiving  the  footsteps  of  Nature  through  the  realm  of 
humankind,  they  in  Kke  manner  perceived  rudiments  of 
human  thought  and  emotion  in  all  the  realm  of  natural- 
kind.  They  anthropomorphised  Nature,  because  they 
had  naturahzed  Anthropos.  We  read  the  writings  of  that 
day,  wherein  mountains  bring  forth,  rivers  have  sons, 
fish  of  the  sea  become  participators  in  the  human  drama, 
hills  clap  their  hands  for  joy  or  some  captain  cries  his 
"Stand  still"  to  the  rolling  sun.  And  in  superior  fashion 
we  smile  at  their  childish  naivete.  We  forget  that  they 
saw  Nature  thus  in  the  hkeness  of  man,  because  they  in 
similar  fashion  saw  man  in  the  likeness  of  Nature.  The 
law  of  mechanical  necessity,  formulated  now  by  science, 
is  not  a  modern  discovery.  The  Greeks  knew  it;  per- 
ceive how  large  a  place  Fate  —  anangke  —  occupies  in 
their  Uterature.  But  they  included  man  in  that  neces- 
sitarian scheme  of  things;  they  attempted  no  priggish 
distinction  between  the  two  orders.  They  staggered  not 
at  the  idea  of  Nature  as  a  phantasmagoria  of  forces  act- 
ing like  men;  because  they  knew  that  man  is  in  the  same 
network  of  necessity,  and  acts  on  the  same  principle  as 
do  animals  and  cabbage.  When  you  mechanicalize  the 
human  realm,  you  thereby  humanize  the  mechanical 
realm.  Nature  was  close  to  man,  because  the  men  of 
that  day  were  so  close  to  Nature. 

"Was  it  true"  —  some  one  asks  —  "that  old  myth- 
ological view  of  tilings?"    Truth  is  that  which  works. 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    29 

The  pagan  view  of  the  universe  worked.  So  long  as  it 
was  retained,  friendship  and  joy  and  artistic  production 
were  the  product.  Harmony  of  adjustment  between  man 
and  Nature  brings  a  condition  known  as  blessedness. 
Modern  man  is  seeking  that  adjustment  by  posing  him- 
self in  a  stilted  artificiality  remote  from  Nature,  and  then 
wresting  her  forces  into  harmony  with  his  artificial 
wishes,  by  appUed  science.  The  ancients  sought  it  by 
remaining  close  to  Nature,  whereby  the  needs  of  man  were 
not  greatly  divergent  from  her  normal  supply  of  those 
needs.  They  got  results.  We  are  not  getting  results. 
They  experienced  blessedness.  We,  in  om-  neurasthenic 
higgledy-piggledy,  are  unblessed.  We  pooh-pooh  the 
superstitions  of  the  IsraeHtes,  and  boast  of  our  nowaday 
hygiene.  But  scarcely  shall  be  found  in  these  times  so 
rugged  and  rhythmic  a  set  of  heart  valves  as  was  the 
average  among  those  hardy  hill  folk. 

We  have  erected  x)urselves  in  a  false  and  exposed  posi- 
tion far  from  the  sheltering  arms  of  our  Earth-mother. 
In  so  doing  we  have  created  a  mass  of  wants,  to  supply 
which  we  puff  and  pant  and  sweat  the  Hvelong  day.  We 
have  more  quantum  of  commodities  than  had  that  classic 
world.  But  they  had  less  need.  And  the  leisure  they 
thus  gained  over  us,  they  employed  in  writing  bibles  and 
iliads,  producing  prodigies  of  worth  and  beauty  so  far 
above  our  fifth-rate  competency  that  we  do  not  even 
aspire  to  rival  them.  Socrates  and  his  wife  Xanthippe 
had  but  one  cloak  between  them;  so  that  in  cold  weather 
they  had  to  take  turns  going  out.  Modernity  is  produc- 
ing overcoats  in  plenty.  But  is  it  producing  Socratic 
spirits  in  plenty?  They  had  griefs,  yes.  But  these 
were  not  the  haunting  haggard  perplexities  and  hint  of 
impending  dissolution,  which  nightmare  the  modern  brain. 
Safe-folded  in  the  strength  of  the  hills,  their  hves  had  a 


30  THE  FREE  CITY 

sure  foundation.  "They  heal  their  griefs,"  said  Homer; 
"for  curable  are  the  hearts  of  the  noble."  Children  of 
Nature,  naught  could  seriously  harm  them. 

I  hold  no  brief  for  an  act  of  nihihsm  to  be  practised  on 
applied  science.  I  know  that  when  man  shall  return  to 
his  home  in  the  principle  of  community  and  its  adoration 
of  some  spot  of  Nature,  science  will  be  no  bar  to  a  poet- 
izing intimacy  with  her  as  in  that  former  day.  Is  only 
the  antique  astronomy  poetic,  and  the  Copernican  system 
necessarily  dull  and  prosaic?  They  thought  of  the  sun 
as  a  charioteer  driving  his  steeds  across  the  heavens  in 
diurnal  journey.  Now  we  know  that  the  Earth-mother  is 
the  active  agent  in  night-and-day's  alternating  sequence. 
She  holds  a  lapfull  of  her  offspring  up  to  the  sun  for  a  few 
hours,  to  be  kissed  by  the  jocund  orb.  Then  she  gathers 
them  back  under  her  shielding  wing;  covering  their  eyes 
that  they  may  sleep,  as  a  hen  covers  her  chickens.  No 
possibility  there  for  poetry?  No  material  in  that,  to 
evoke  in  us  a  filial  bearing  towards  the  Great  Mother 
whose  broad  and  faithful  bosom  holds  us,  whose  udders 
distended  with  milk  nourish  us? 

When  city  repubUcs  appear  again,  we  shall  have  a 
grander  paganism  than  that  which  deified  the  Mediter- 
ranean world;  because  we  shall  have  an  ampler  science 
to  guide  imagination's  powerful  pinions.  The  scientific 
spirit  is  not  a  product  of  modern  commerciahsm.  The 
impulse  in  its  modem  form  originated  in  the  municipal 
universities  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Can  a  commercial- 
ized mind  discover  secrets  from  Nature?  Pure  science  is 
ever  the  mark  of  an  unworldly  soul;  one  who  is  a  pious 
child  of  Erda  our  mother,  and  who  in  the  contemplation 
of  her  loveUness  is  content  to  let  the  world  go  by.  To 
such  devotees  she  imseals  her  mysteries,  and  to  none 
other.    Whenever  a  votary  of  science  gets  inoculated 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    31 

with  the  germ  of  gain,  instantly  Nature  is  silent  to  that 
man.  She  averts  her  gaze  from  him;  and  her  gathering 
frown  darkens  the  eyes  of  him. 

From  the  Germans  we  were  of  late  obtaining  the  chief- 
est  fmid  of  science.  And  in  that  land,  we  saw,  the  small 
principality  was  preserved  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century;  before  she  had  backslided  to  the  un- 
clean god  of  commercialism  and  a  national  polity  of  state. 
Athens  of  old  was  a  municipal  repubhc.  And  she  pro- 
duced Aristotle,  father  of  aU  occidental  scientists.  The 
city  state  produced  poetry;  it  also  produced  science. 
So  far  from  a  warfare  betwixt  these  two,  they  are  Siamese 
twins,  ligatured  indivisibly.  In  a  more  fitting  place  we 
shall  see  that  the  principle  of  municipaUty  is  the  creator 
of  that  Godlikest  faculty  which,  for  want  of  a  better 
name,  we  call  imagination.  The  scientific  use  of  the  ima- 
gination is  a  first  principle  with  all  who  would  discover 
the  modes  and  ongoings  of  Nature.  A  commercial 
age,  by  kiUing  imagination,  destroys  poetry;  and  it  also 
—  were  it  to  continue  —  would  destroy  science. 

Paganism  is  beUef  in  the  miraculous.  It  is  a  religious 
attitude  towards  Nature;  viewing  her  to  be  in  nowise  a 
dead  insentient  thing  but  a  concourse  of  forces,  thinking 
and  feeUng  and  willing.  Miracles  are  a  restoration  of 
harmony  between  man  and  this  lower  natural  kingdom. 
The  need  for  a  miracle  arises  when,  through  some  mis- 
understanding, there  has  come  to  pass  an  apathetic  or 
belligerent  relation  between  the  two.  When  that  apathy 
or  beUigerency  gives  way  to  co-operation,  it  begets  in 
man  a  sunburst  of  dehght.  In  his  elation  of  rapture,  he 
calls  the  event  by  the  most  superlative  term  in  his  vocab- 
ulary —  miracle. 

Are  miracles  true?  Truth  is  anything  that  imites  man 
and  Nature  in  sympathetic  teamwork  —  what  we  call 


32  THE  FREE  CITY 

felicity  or  blessedness.  Miracles  bring  to  pass  that  team- 
work. Therefore  they  are  true.  Science  is  a  code  and 
manual  of  the  miraculous.  It  conducts  innumerable  ex- 
perimentations in  the  art  of  getting  Nature  and  man  to 
work  together.  The  experiments  that  succeed  are  hsted 
and  codified.  And  we  call  it,  science.  It  doesn't  matter, 
when  man  and  Nature  patch  up  a  quarrel  and  lock  elbows 
in  amity,  which  of  the  two  yield  to  the  other.  The 
Hegehan  dialectic  would  declare  that  there  had  been  a 
mutual  adjustment. 

Monstrously  false,  the  notion  that  there  is  antagonism 
between  the  Bible  and  paganism.  Nature-poetry  —  be- 
hef  in  the  miraculous  —  is  ever  an  accompaniment  of 
municipal  commonwealths;  because  the  municipal  com- 
monwealth nestles  into  some  nook  of  Nature  and  there 
acclimates  itself.  Runs  the  legend,  that  when  Jesus  was 
born,  a  shudder  ran  through  the  isles  of  Greece,  and  a  cry 
was  heard  by  fishermen :  "Pan  is  dead!"  The  cry  did  go 
shuddering  through  the  world  at  about  that  time.  But 
not  because  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  It  was  because  of  the 
birth  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Municipality  gave  us,  and 
will  always  give  us,  the  pagan-poetic.  Material  com- 
mercialism always  destroys  it.  As  that  Empire  extended 
its  bleakness  like  the  blackened  ashes  of  a  conflagration 
across  the  ancient  world,  the  aforetime  intimacy  with 
Nature  survived  only  in  sheltered  rustic  nooks  whither 
the  new  commercial  spirit  had  not  penetrated.  In  Latin, 
the  word  for  a  rural  thing  is  paganus.  Pagans  were  thus 
the  "belated"  folk  who  persisted  in  regarding  the  world 
in  terms  of  the  miraculous;  whilst  the  "advanced  "  people, 
reclining  amid  wealth  and  ease,  had  left  behind  them  those 
"antiquated"  notions. 

Perceiving  the  loss  that  has  resulted  from  overthrow- 
ing that  old  and  true  faith,  there  have  been  attempts  to 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    33 

revive  paganism.  Emperor  Julian,  probably  the  purest- 
hearted,  highest-minded  imperator  that  ever  wore  the 
Roman  purple,  gave  his  Hfe  to  such  an  endeavor.  William 
Sharp  attempted  it  with  his  New  Pagan  Review.  Now 
there  are  choice  spirits  not  a  few,  banding  themselves  in 
the  same  enterprise.  Fiasco  will  be  their  fate.  The 
poetic  view  of  hfe  is  not  a  matter  of  individual  wishings 
or  wilhngs.  It  is  a  pohty  of  state.  To  seek  to  resurrect 
the  shapes  and  colorings  in  which  the  Jews  and  Greeks 
and  early  Romans  expressed  their  admiration  of  their 
landscape,  is  distinctly  anti-pagan.  Commerciahsm  can 
borrow  its  poetry  readymade;  Paganism,  never.  Our 
times  and  scenic-  settings  are  different  from  theirs.  Let 
each  grouping  of  people  unite  themselves  with  their  plot 
of  earth  as  did  the  classic  people,  and  that  ensemble  of 
Nature  will  be  vivified  into  a  host  of  sentient  beings,  as 
in  the  classic  era. 

Paganism  —  belief  in  the  miraculous  —  is  patriotism 
heated  to  the  combustion  point,  whereupon  it  blazes  up, 
and  we  call  it  poetry.  Nations  know  not  what  true  patriot- 
ism is;  they  are  too  big.  As  the  area  of  one's  affection 
enlarges,  the  intensity  of  that  affection  diminishes. 
Nations,  perceiving  that  patriotism  is  in  decay,  have  tried 
to  galvanize  it  into  action  by  statutes  and  incantations. 
Thus  they  have  brought  into  ridicule  the  noblest  senti- 
ment that  can  inhabit  the  human  breast  —  a  people's 
attachment  to  the  soil  they  live  upon.  The  Jerusalem 
state  developed  in  its  people  an  intense  patriotism ;  where- 
fore the  Bible  presents  a  pagan-poetic  view  of  Nature, 
the  most  sustained  of  any  literature.  Palestine's  hill 
country  would  not  seem  a  favorable  setting  for  man's 
poetizing  faculty  to  work  upon.  But  patriotism  can,  out 
of  a  bleak  wilderness,  image  forth  a  Holy  Land  filled  with 
glory^    That  hill  state  took  the  gaunt  crags  of  the  Leba- 


34  THE  FREE  CITY 

non  Range  and  dignified  them  into  a  cupola  of  the  world. 
Contrariwise,  when  patriotism  perishes,  the  fairest  realm 
on  earth  is  accounted  a  rat  hole. 

The  Bible  folk  fitted  snugly  into  vtheir  landscape. 
Therefore  they  believed  that  the  landscape  fitted  them. 
They  were  at  one  with  the  purposes  of  Nature  in  that 
spot;  which  is  another  way  of  saying,  Nature  was  at 
one  with  their  purposes.  So  they  rapturously  pictured 
the  scenery  as  taking  part  in  the  human  plan.  The  genius 
of  the  state  —  Jehovah  was  the  name  thereof  —  sum- 
moned all  that  wedge  of  earth  to  partake  in  the  political 
program.  The  creatures  in  the  subhuman  world  heeded 
that  call  of  their  marshalhng  chieftain.  FUes  and  Uce 
and  darkness  and  frogs  plagued  Israel's  enemies.  The  sea 
opened  a  path  to  Jewish  feet.  Sinai  gave  them  counsel. 
A  cloud  was  spread  for  their  covering;  and  a  fire  gave 
them  light.  Was  it  true,  this  view  of  Nature  as  man's 
miraculous  coadjutor?  Yes;  because  it  worked.  It 
welded  the  most  compact  social  union  in  perhaps  all  the 
story  of  man.  It  wrote  a  Book,  to  whose  incomparable 
worth  nineteen  grateful  centuries  testify.  And  it  built 
a  city  of  God  whose  illumination  has  hghtened  our  dull 
world,  and  still  lightens  it. 

When  the  Persians  overran  Attica,  the  Athenians, 
rather  than  capitulate,  took  ship  and  lived  o£f  shore. 
During  that  exile  came  the  season  for  their  processional 
to  the  village  of  Eleusis;  the  stated  Eleusinian  Mysteries. 
Albeit  the  citizens  were  now  absent  from  Athens,  the  city 
was  not  on  that  account  bereft  of  inhabitants.  For  the 
Nature  divinities  were  still  there :  Athena  and  her  gUtter- 
ing  host;  and  the  spirits  of  the  forefathers,  thick-peopling 
the  spot  as  an  invisible  nimbus.  And  now  notice  the 
miracle  that  happened  —  as  related  by  her  true-believ- 
ing historians.     On  the  Eleusinian  date,  the  processional 


CITY-WORSHIP  LAYS  HER  BASIS  DEEP    35 

to  Eleusis  was  not  permitted  to  go  by  default.  Those  in- 
visible inhabiters  of  Athens  formed  themselves  into  a 
pilgrim  band  and  marched  thither.  The  proof  of  it  is 
that  the  people  on  shipboard,  straining  their  eyes  in  that 
direction  to  see  what  would  happen,  actually  saw  the  dust 
clouds  raised  by  the  feet  of  the  processioning  host. 

A  mere  superstition,  you  say?  the  miracle  never  hap- 
pened; dust  clouds  raised  by  the  wind  —  which  is  naught 
but  gaseous  matter  in  mechanical  motion;  and  which  the 
childish  Athenians  interpreted  according  to  their  ardent 
expectations.  O  bhnd,  stoneblind  modern!  See  you  not 
that  the  "ardent  expectation"  was  itself  the  miracle? 
Was  it  true,  this  procession  by  an  invisible  host?  Most 
veraciously  true.  Is  capable  of  pragmatic  verification. 
A  few  months  later  those  Athenians-  left  their  ships,  the 
enemy  being  now  departed.  And  with  gush  of  power, 
they  built  the  Parthenon.  I  say  unto  you,  anything  that 
can  build  a  Parthenon  is  true.  And  anything  that  builds 
dry-goods-box  architecture,  in  the  commerciaUzed  ugli- 
ness we  call  modernity,  is  most  positively  untrue.  The 
Unes  of  the  Parthenon  are  true  lines.  Therefore  they 
came  from  Godhead,  who  is  the  Lord  of  truth.  The  lines 
of  dry-goods-box  architecture  are  untrue  lines.  There- 
fore they  came  from  the  devil,  that  father  of  lies  and  lord 
of  all  unveracity. 

Why  did  not  the  Athenians,  it  may  be  asked,  when  their 
home  site  was  thus  desolated  by  an  invading  foe,  go  else- 
where? What!  Leave  Attica?  Their  life  was  inter- 
woven with  her  hills  and  brooks,  her  furrow  fields  and 
forests.  These  objects  of  Nature  were  not  a  stretch  of 
dead  territory.  The  hills  were  peopled  with  divinities. 
The  brooks  were  water-nymphs;  you  could  overhear 
them  babbling  —  the  arrant  chatterboxes!  The  fields 
were  a  trencher  plate  on  which  Demeter  and  Ceres  spread 


36  THE  FREE  CITY 

fat  viands.  On  the  orchard  trees,  Pomona  hung  luscious 
fruit.  Pan  and  his  singing  train  vivified  each  woodland. 
Whilst  above  the  AcropoUs  hovered  Athena  the  Protect- 
ress. Leave  these?  or  surrender  them  into  the  sover- 
eignty of  another?  An  Athenian  would  sooner  have 
died  a  thousand  deaths. 

For  moderns  it  is  difficult,  suckled  as  we  are  in  a  cheap 
and  trivial  view  of  Nature,  to  reahze  the  intensity  of 
patriotism  wherewith  citizens  in  a  Free  City  cherish  their 
homeland.  That  which  we  —  so  stupidly  —  call  the 
"forces  of  nature,"  was  to  them  a  community  of  intel- 
ligences. Their  political  life  was  implicated  with  these 
subhuman  but  very  sentient  creatures.  They  consulted 
them.  Wrought  hand  in  hand  with  them.  Athenians 
planted  their  grain  with  prayer;  pruned  their  fruit  trees 
with  an  invocation  to  Pomona.  They  carved  the  stone 
and  hewed  the  beam  of  wood  rehgiously.  We  shall  see 
the  communal  workshops  of  India  displaying  this  self- 
same naturalness  of  devotion.  When  patriotism  localizes 
itself  within  the  constricted  boundaries  of  a  small  de- 
mocracy, it  bursts  into  a  flaming  fire,  whose  other  name 
is  rehgion. 

Free  Cities  have  no  hankering  after  the  territory  of 
others.  Their  own  terrain  is  so  fraught  with  deeps  be- 
low deeps  and  heights  above  heights,  a  kingdom  inviting 
to  endless  exploration,  that  thoy  have  no  eyes  for  covet- 
ing outside  splendors.  A  national  state,  in  contrast,  is 
bitten  constantly  with  land  hunger.  Commercial  states 
expand  horizontally,  and  are  always  getting  into  collision. 
Artistic  states  expand  vertically;  in  that  direction  there 
are  no  coUidings.  Nationalism  is  a  migratory  mania;  a 
restiveness  that  is  never  content  save  when  whizzing  on 
wheels.  Municipality  goes  to  a  different  tune.  It  en- 
genders a  temper  of  society  wherein  the  bonnie  purple 


CITY-WORSHIP  LA^  HER  BASIS  DEEP    37 

heather  cladding  the  thin  soil  of  a  Scotland,  seems  love- 
lier than  the  Riviera;  and  all  the  sumac  by  the  wayside 
is  a  burning  bush. 

The  Athenians  never  invaded  Persia.  But  Persia  was 
repeatedly  trying  to  invade  Athens.  Small  states  are 
magnanimous  in  their  foreign  relations.  Big  states  are 
narrow-hearted;  with  largeness  of  girth  they  display 
smallness  of  mind.  The  Athenians,  with  a  few  square 
miles  to  call  their  own,  were  content  therewith  as  their 
world.  Persia  was  so  big  that  Cyrus  boasted  to  Xeno- 
phon:  "My  father's  empire  is  so  large  that  people  perish 
with  cold  at  one  extremity  whilst  they  are  suffocated  with 
heat  at  the  other.", 

Genius  is  a  distillation  from  the  strong  herb  of  munic- 
ipaUty  —  Nature  rushing  up  in  man  unto  immeasurable 
power;  opening  within  him  unexpected  geysers  of  capa- 
bility. Addressing  ourselves  to  a  swift  reviewal  of  the 
past,  we  shall  see  that  the  city  republic  is  the  cradle  of 
culture,  nurse  of  liberal  arts  and  civil  law,  fostering 
mother  of  whatsoever  is  lovely  and  of  good  report. 


CHAPTER   IV 

WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC 

WHY  is  Rome  so  magical  a  name?  She  is  not 
delectable  for  situation.  Seven  or  eight  vol- 
canic pimples  —  eruption  on  an  otherwise  flat 
and  dreary  campagna;  washed  by  a  narrow  stream  whose 
overflowings  have  been  immemorially  a  terror.  Something 
more  than  scenic  accessories  and  stage  setting  went  to 
the  making  of  the  drama  known  by  those  conjuring  words, 
Roma  Immortalis.  Historians  have  given  us  the  chron- 
icles of  this  town  by  the  Tiber;  without  seeking  a  clue 
to  the  motor  force  behind  those  three  thousand  consecu- 
tive years  of  achievement.  They  have  taken  for  granted 
the  marvellousness  of  Roman  character.  And  then  they 
show  the  wonders  it  wrought.  But  it  is  the  genesis  of 
that  primal  fact  we  are  in  quest  of.  Great  character  will 
issue  into  great  history.  But  how  grew  she  the  greatness 
of  character? 

I  find  Rome's  clue  and  secret  in  her  religiousness.  Re- 
ligion is  nowadays  a  word  of  ill  repilte.  And  for  a  reason. 
In  the  disintegration  of  society  to-day,  the  individual  has 
become  the  unit.  So  that  by  religion  modem  ears  under- 
stand it  to  mean  reUgious  individuals.  Religion  intensi- 
fies whatsoever  it  touches.  Tie  it  up  with  the  ego,  it 
makes  that  ego  tenfold  more  egoistic.  Much  of  the  re- 
ligious energy  of  our  day,  therefore,  tends  to  sunder  the 
individual  from  the  social  mass,  in  a  pursuit  of  private 
salvation.    Small  wonder  that  such  a.  spectacle  excites 

38 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  39 

the  derision  of  the  best  and  higher  minds.  But  civic  re- 
ligion is  of  another  stripe.  City-worship  is  the  religion 
that  is  pure  and  undefiled,  seeing  that  it  keeps  the  ego 
subordinate  to  the  commonweal.  The  private  must 
serve  the  pubHc.  When  ego-interests  bulk  more  im- 
portantly than  communal  interests,  hell  migrates  to  earth 
and  takes  up  its  visible  habitation.  By  "religiousness" 
I  use  the  word  as  the  Romans  used  it :  The  investiture  of 
the  community  with  divine  prerogatives. 

To  the  average  reader,  Rome  suggests  an  association  of 
ideas  quite  other  than  religious  —  power  and  law  and 
empire,  legions  trampling  with  steel-shod  feet,  lust  of 
dominion,  pride  of  hfe,  Lucullan  feasts,  iniquities  cynical 
and  immoderate.  But  these  were  the  sproutings  after 
she  had  ceased  to  be  a  municipahty  and  had  gone  off  into 
an  imperium.  I  am  speaking  of  her  when  she  was  a  city 
republic,  nestling  in  her  Latium  coziness.  In  this  her 
original  and  creative  era,  devotional  intensity  was  the 
badge  of  all  her  being. 

Romulus  was  the  chieftain  of  the  band  of  shepherds 
who,  driven  from  the  Alban  hills  by  a  volcano,  settled  on 
the  Palatine  Hill.  He  was  one  of  the  great  spiritual 
leaders  of  all  time;  a  reHgious  genius.  (It  is  agreeable  to 
remember  that,  in  accepting  these  early  chronicles  of 
Rome,  we  are  in  line  with  the  latest  and  most  scientific 
history.  That  is  not  legendary  lore.  Mystical,  yes;  but 
of  sound  historicity.) 

The  first  thought  of  Romulus  the  Founder  was  to  get 
into  friendly  relations  with  this  new  landscape.  He  well 
understood  that  the  Tiber,  with  the  hills  and  plain  and 
grass  and  clouds  and  rain  and  dew  round  about,  were  not 
agglomerations  of  dead  atoms;  these  were  intelligences, 
with  capacity  to  love  you  if  you  cherished  them,  or  hate 
you,  if  you  were  indifferent  to  them.    Seeking  a  mystic 


40  THE  FREE  CITY 

union  with  these,  Romulus  first  of  all  erected  a  shrine ;  he 
began  the  ritual  of  democracy.  We  Americans,  depart- 
ing from  the  precedent  set  by  our  long-ago  forefathers, 
have  lost  the  tradition  of  city-worship.  We  account  only 
material  considerations  to  be  of  consequence  in  the  found- 
ing of  a  city.  One  will  believe  this  to  be  an  improvement, 
when  Cincinnati  and  Baltimore  and  Denver  surpass  in 
grandeur  Jerusalem  and  Rome  and  Athens;  signalizing 
themselves  in  universal  history  as  did  those  communes 
of  the  Mediterranean. 

Romulus  and  his  fellow  shepherds  knew  that  if  the  com- 
munity they  were  founding  was  to  go  successfully,  they 
must  dedicate  themselves.  So  they  built  a  fire.  And  all 
of  the  people  jumped  across  the  flame;  in  order,  as 
Coulanges  interprets  it,  that  they  might  be  pure  of  every 
stain.  Then  arose  a  most  solemn  sohcitude  —  the  city's 
awful  and  inviolate  sanctity;  whose  other  word  is  sover- 
eignty. A  subject  city,  the  rulership  resident  somewhere 
outside!  that  were  an  abdication  of  self-government,  un- 
speakable affront  to  their  manhood.  In  a  commercial 
civihzation  a  city  will  barter  away  her  freedom  without 
a  thought.  In  a  divine  civihzation  a  city  that  loses  her 
sovereignty  is  held  to  be  a  disreputable  place  for  human 
beings  to  inhabit.  Romulus  saw  to  it  that  the  city  which 
was  to  be  called  after  his  name  should  be  a  residence  of 
reputable  souls. 

He  took  a  plow  and  carved  a  furrow  around  the  city; 
marking  thus  her  boundaries.  That  furrow  was  sacred. 
The  sanctity  attaching  thus  to  frontiers,  and  seen  later 
in  the  worship  of  the  god  Terminus,  was  most  important 
in  its  influence  on  the  patriotism  of  that  people  —  civic 
patriotism,  without  which  neither  Rome  nor  any  other 
community  would  have  achieved  the  pinnacles  of  fame. 
That  furrow  was  regarded  with  so  dread  a  reverence  that 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  41 

no  one,  not  even  the  Romans  themselves,  were  permitted 
to  step  over  it,  in  either  direction.  Some  method  had 
to  be  devised  to  permit  entrance  into  the  city,  and  exit. 
Therefore  at  certain  places  Romulus  lifted  the  plow  and 
carried  it  for  a  few  feet.  These  gaps  in  the  furrow  were 
the  gates;  whence  the  name  "portal,"  from  portare,  the 
places  where  the  plow  was  "carried."  Remus,  brother 
of  Romulus,  in  a  moment  of  hurry  or  thoughtlessness, 
failed  to  go  around  and  pass  by  the  portal;  he  stepped 
across  the  furrow.  To  violate  thus  the  sanctified  frontier 
was  a  crime  beyond  atonement.  Romulus  killed  him. 
In  a  city  state,  family  ties  are  sacred.  But  the  municipal 
tie  is  still  more  -  sacred.  If  one's  love  to  one's  blood- 
brother  gets  in  the  way  of  one's  love  to  the  conamunity, 
the  lesser  love  must  yield. 

This  reHgious  attitude  towards  their  plot  of  earth  pene- 
trated everything  the  Romans  did.  Before  the  grain  had 
reached  the  ear,  the  Roman  cultivator  had  offered  more 
than  ten  sacrifices.  We  see  them  each  month  go  out 
under  the  sky  and  sing  Jana  Novella,  the  ancient  hynm,  as 
the  new  moon  grew  bright  in  the  west.  Every  home  was 
a  temple.  With  the  Roman,  all  of  his  actions  were  rites. 
Birth,  the  taking  of  the  toga,  marriage,  and  each  recurring 
anniversary  of  these,  were  solemn  acts  of  worship.  Of 
Rome,  Livy  bore  witness:  "There  is  not  a  place  in  this 
city  which  is  not  impregnated  with  reUgion." 

The  sacredness  that  attached  to  all  other  provinces  of 
their  life  attached  also  to  sex.  "The  soul,  not  the  body, 
makes  marriage  eternal,"  said  PubHus.  Sex,  more  than 
any  other  department  of  man's  Ufe,  is  the  incitor  to  self- 
ishness. Municipahty  is  an  organised  crusade  against 
selfishness.  City  states  therefore  always  develop  a 
high  standard  of  sex  moraHty.  In  the  Jerusalem  state 
no  male  infant  could  become  a  citizen  except  he  be  cir- 


42  THE  FREE  CITY 

cumcised  —  the  sign  of  sex  discipline  and  renunciation 
even  to  the  point  of  agony.  Of  Judaic  citizenship  it  was 
the  centrabnost  ceremony;  foreigners  seeking  entrance 
into  that  civic  fellowship  were  compelled  to  undergo  this 
rite.  In  Rome  this  consecration  of  sex  went  still  more 
religiously.  So  much  so,  that  if  I  were  asked  to  name  the 
most  rehgious  people  in  history,  I  should  answer,  the 
Romans;  giving  them  the  primacy  here  even  over  the 
Israehtes  and  their  sacred  Zion.  St.  Augustine  affirms 
that  among  the  Romans,  in  the  procreative  embrace  and 
the  generative  rite,  no  less  than  four  separate  divine 
presences  were  invoked.  At  the  wedding,  a  marriage 
hymn  was  sung  by  the  guests  in  epithalamic  choral,  a 
prayer  to  the  Great  Mother,  Generatrice.  The  nuptial 
chamber  was  beHeved  to  be  filled  with  a  crowd  of  deities. 
Religion  presided,  not  only  over  the  conception  of  a 
Roman  child,  but  over  the  newborn  infant.  There  was 
a  goddess  that  especially  protected  cradles.  And  an- 
other, who  milked  out  the  breast  to  the  Uttle  one. 

It  was  not  an  accident  that  Rome  developed  as  perhaps 
the  cardinal  fact  of  her  ritual  the  Vestal  Virgins.  With 
so  scrupulous  a  nicety  was  the  immaculateness  of  the 
Vestals  protected,  if  one  of  them  fell  from  the  covenant 
she  had  taken,  it  was  prescribed  by  law  that  no  execu- 
tioner could  touch  her  even  to  put  her  to  death.  She 
was  escorted  into  an  underground  vault.  Beside  her 
were  placed  a  candle,  water  and  bread.  Then  the  en- 
trance was  sealed  up.  Rome  endured  the  Tajquins,  until 
one  of  them  violated  the  virtue  of  Lucretia.  The  specta- 
cle of  a  woman  dishonored  aroused  the  Roman  citizenry. 
Tarquin  and  all  his  family  were  expelled.  Rome  never 
had  another  king.  Horatio  holding  the  bridge  against 
the  Tarquins  attempting  to  return,  is  known  of  every 
schoolboy. 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  43 

The  other  great  political  revolution  there  was  caused 
likewise  by  a  deed  —  no,  it  was  but  a  desire  —  of  in- 
continence. Rome's  administration  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  a  ruKng  class.  One  of  these  turned  desirous 
eyes  on  Virginia,  the  daughter  of  Virginius.  Rather  than 
see  his  daughter  violated,  and  unable  to  protect  her  from 
the  powerful  oligarch,  the  father  caught  up  a  butcher's 
knife  from  a  stall  in  the  street  near  where  the  altercation 
was  staged,  and  dug  it  into  her  bosom.  It  was  the  signal 
once  more  for  an  uprising  against  a  ruUng  set  some  of 
whose  members  had  become  thus  lustfully  inclined.  For 
nearly  two  hundred  years,  not  a  case  of  divorce  was 
known.  Respect  for  wife  and  mother  was  rigidly  en- 
forced. 

Because  of  the  intensity  of  their  city-worship,  and  of 
the  discipline  that  the  Romans  imposed  on  themselves 
in  consequence,  the  Romans  became  noted  for  the  aus- 
terity of  their  morals.  They  were  the  Puritans  of  that 
day.  "Noblest  Roman  of  them  all,"  pictures  the  awe- 
struck regard  that  the  severe  virtue  of  this  people  awoke 
among  outsiders.  The  municipahty  was  everything.  To 
it  the  individual  bent  his  private  inclinations  with  an 
obedience  hard  for  moderns  to  imagine.  What  would 
people  to-day  say  of  a  public  officer  specially  chosen  and 
set  apart  to  inquire  into  public  and  private  morals?  Yet 
in  Rome  this  office  —  the  Censor,  he  was  called  —  was 
one  of  the  highest  in  the  city,  a  post  aspired  to  as  the 
crown  of  a  civic  career.  He  could  bar  an  elected  official 
from  office,  on  moral  grounds.  A  part  of  the  Censor's 
duty  was  to  take  an  enumeration  of  the  people;  whence 
the  term;  "census."  The  census  was  for  the  purpose  of 
assigning  to  each  person  in  the  state  his  share  in  sup- 
porting the  civic  structure. 

Men    were    prohibited    from    wearing    silk.     Women 


44  THE  FREE  CITY 

could  not  wear  a  dress  of  more  than  one  color.  The 
number  of  guests  one  could  invite  to  a  dinner  was  limited, 
as  also  the  amount  to  be  spent  in  entertaining  them. 
The  maximum  one  could  spend  on  a  wedding  or  a  funeral 
was  fixed.  The  Lex  Licinis  sought  to  encourage  a  diet 
of  garden  products;  it  limited  the  amount  of  meat  and 
fish  one  could  eat.  A  Consular  law  passed  not  long  after 
B.C.  161  forbade  —  on  non-festal  days  —  the  serving  of 
any  fowl  but  a  single  hen,  and  that  not  fattened.  The 
wearing  of  jewelry  was  Hmited.  Also  was  fixed  the  price 
one  could  spend  for  furnitm*e,  equipage  and  gravestones. 
Even  as  late  as  Caesar's  time,  guards  were  placed  around 
the  market  to  seize  forbidden  luxuries.  Sometimes 
dishes  were  seized  by  officers  of  the  law  from  the  tables 
of  the  citizens. 

Writes  Cato,  of  the  self-denying  code  of  that  time: 
"Their  custom  was  to  be  dressed  in  public  respectably; 
at  home,  as  much  as  was  needful.  They  paid  more  for 
horses  than  for  cooks.  If  a  man  appUed  himself  to  con- 
viviaHty,  he  was  called  a  vagabond."  In  their  festival 
hours,  said  he,  "it  had  been  a  custom  of  the  forefathers, 
for  those  who  recUned  at  banquets,  to  sing  to  the  flute 
the  praise  and  merits  of  illustrious  heroes."  The  worthies 
of  that  day  had  small  use  for  the  mere  rhetorician.  Said 
Cato:  "An  orator,  son  Marcus,  is  a  good  man  skilled  in 
speech."  And  he  added:  "Grip  the  subject;  words  will 
follow." 

The  austerity  of  such  a  code  strikes  a  chill  into  softling 
modernity.  But  it  struck  no  chill  into  the  Romans. 
Their  beds  consisted  of  planks  of  wood  covered  with 
straw  or  leaves  or  moss.  They  saw  no  privation  in  such 
a  life.  To  make  their  city  rich,  they  themselves  were 
content  to  be  poor.  That  which  one  does  in  a  devoted 
frame,    he    does    joyfully.    Sacrifice    for    Rome?    They 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  45 

would  die  for  her,  and  with  no  wince  of  repining.  In 
whatsoever  a  Roman  did,  it  was  felt  that  the  fair  name  of 
the  municipality  was  at  stake.  The  municipality  saw 
to  it,  therefore,  that  he  did  what  was  right.  FideUty  to 
engagements,  self-mastery  over  the  appetites,  dutiful 
service,  simpUcity  of  apparel,  plain  food,  mercantile 
honor  —  these  were  enforced  with  penahtes;  even  to 
throwing  from  the  Tarpeian  Rock. 

In  that  era  of  strong  implacable  government,  we  hear 
not  of  murmurings.  A  pervasive  contentment  brooded 
over  the  people.  In  our  times  the  individual  has  ten  times 
the  Hcense  that  a  Roman  had.  And  to-day  insurgencies 
outroar  the  dungeons  of  the  damned.  A  government 
strong  enough  to  govern  everybody  in  the  state,  is  free- 
dom. Only  self-government  —  community  government 
—  is  strong  enough  for  that  task.  The  absence  of 
government  to-day  is  separating  society  into  rich  and 
poor;  upon  whom  the  laws  bear  down  unequally. 
There,  the  root  of  the  complainings.  The  deepest 
hunger  of  the  heart  of  man  is  for  fellowship.  Rome 
saw  to  it  that  upon  all  the  population  the  laws  put 
their  just  and  equal  pressure.  We  find  Brutus  the 
Elder  ordering  his  sons  to  death,  because  of  their  un- 
faithfulness to  the  city;  he  standing  by  unmoved  as 
their  heads  were  struck  from  their  shoulders.  We  are 
told  of  Dentatus,  hero  of  three  trimnphs,  eating 
boiled  turnips  in  his  chimney  corner,  and  scorning  the 
gold  of  Macedonia.  ManUus  put  his  son  to  death  for 
winning  a  victory  contrary  to  orders:  "DiscipUne  is 
the  secret  of  Roman  success,"  explained  the  inflexible 
father. 

It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  among  the  Roman 
women  to  kiss,  with  a  liberality  that  attracted  the  notice 
of  people  outside.     Plutarch  tries  to  explain  the  habit. 


46  THE  FREE  CITY 

He  remarks  that  Roman  women  were  forbidden  to  drink 
wine;  and  suggests  that  the  kissing  custom  may  have 
arisen  in  that  fact,  in  order  to  yield  detection  if  any  of 
them  had  broken  the  rule.  Probably  the  surmise  is 
wide  of  the  mark.  But  the  fact  that  Plutarch  evolved 
such  a  guess,  is  eloquent  of  the  wide  reputation  the 
Romans  enjoyed,  for  discipline.  So  highly  did  Rome 
exalt  the  importance  and  rights  of  society,  it  was  by  law 
permitted  to  kill  any  man  who  might  be  suspected  of 
wishing  to  become  king. 

Formerly  the  Roman  calendar  began  with  March. 
The  evidence  of  that  is  still  visible  in  our  names  of  the 
months.  September,  "Seventh  Month,"  is  the  seventh 
from  March;  and  likewise  with  "October,"  "November," 
"December."  But  March  was  Mars'  month;  Mars,  god 
of  war.  When  Rome  was  a  city  commonwealth,  she  was 
not  miUtary.  Therefore  —  as  is  evident  —  they  felt  that 
to  begin  the  year  with  a  month  dedicated  to  the  war-god, 
was  attaching  to  him  a  quite  excessive  praise.  So  they 
made  the  year  begin  with  January;  named  from  Janus, 
the  patron  deity  of  civilian  life.  Legend  says  that  Janus 
on  his  arrival  in  Italy  had  put  the  people  into  conmion- 
wealths.  To  this  patron  of  peace  and  husbandry,  there- 
fore, the  Romans  gave  the  place  of  honor  in  their  calendar. 
The  Pantheon,  built  in  this  her  municipal  period,  was 
Rome's  symbol  of  fraternity  with  and  hospitaUty  towards 
the  civic  deities  of  other  states  that  joined  themselves  to 
Rome's  ItaUan  federation.  To  the  extent  that  a  people 
adore  their  own  square  of  territory,  they  will  respect  the 
territorial  possessions  of  others. 

The  affection  of  this  people  for  their  landscape  is  mir- 
rored in  the  speech  of  Camillus  when  it  was  proposed, 
after  Rome  lay  in  ashes  as  the  result  of  hostile  invasion, 
to  give  up  that  site  and  move  elsewhere:    "Romans, 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  47 

what  an  act  of  impiety  we  are  about  to  perpetrate!  We 
are  in  possession  of  a  city  built  under  the  direction  of 
auspices  and  auguries;  in  which  there  is  not  a  spot  but 
is  full  of  gods  and  religious  rites.  All  these  do  ye  intend, 
Romans,  to  forsake?  Has  our  native  soil  so  slight  a 
hold  on  our  affections;  and  this  earth  which  we  call  om* 
Mother?  or  does  our  love  for  our  country  extend  no  further 
than  the  surface?"  livy,  reporting  his  speech,  adds: 
"Camillus  is  said  to  have  affected  them  much  by  other 
parts  of  his  discourse,  but  particularly  by  that  which  re- 
lated to  reUgious  matters." 

Four  centuries  of  this  devotion  and  frugahty  —  private 
plainness  and  public  magnificence  —  wrought  their  work. 
Romans  stretched  head  and  shoulders  above  the  type  of 
people  round  about.  The  citizenship  of  her  men  and 
women  became  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  To  be 
known  as  a  Roman  was  to  be  known  as  one  aflame  with 
municipal  ardor,  of  fierce  patriotism,  proud  of  one's  city 
with  a  consuming  pride,  exacting  in  the  moral  code 
imposed  on  oneself;  in  bartering,  just;  concerning  ad- 
herance  to  contracts,  trustworthy;  stoic  in  physical 
endurance;  disdainful  of  luxuries;  serving  the  state  first. 
Her  history  thereafter  was  the  uncoiling  of  the  spring  that 
had  been  wound  up  during  those  four  hundred  formative 
years.  It  had  burned  into  the  brains  of  that  people  the 
dogma  that  private  happiness  must  be  subordinated  to 
conmiunity  good.  Happiness  is  an  ego  delectation.  Joy 
is  a  communal  delectation.  Four  centuries  of  life  in  a 
city  state  had  won  the  Romans  to  prefer  joy  over 
happiness. 

Why  did  Rome  cease  to  be  a  municipal  commonwealth 
and  degenerate  into  an  empire?  It  was  because  her 
people  got  away  from  the  soil.  Founded  by  hill  shep- 
herds, she  long  preserved  this  note  of  toil  and  simphcity. 


48  THE  FREE  CITY 

Rome,  first  a  sheepfold,  became  the  center  of  an  agri- 
cultm-al  region.  "The  River  Village,"  as  the  people 
called  her,  was  a  rural  metropolis.  The  rugged  honesty 
of  her  people  attracted  thither  the  farmers  in  the  country- 
side to  do  their  bartering.  In  her  annals  during  this 
period  we  read  of  "cackling  geese."  One  of  her  gates 
was  named  Cattle  Gate.  We  see  her  women  spinning 
and  weaving  wool  in  front  of  their  houses;  whilst  along 
the  street  pass  flocks  of  sheep  and  lowing  herds.  Each 
morning  goats  and  cows  were  driven  in  from  the  surround- 
ing pastures  and  milked  from  door  to  door;  a  custom  still 
discernible  in  those  European  cities  that  have  conserved 
the  naturalness  and  the  local  customs  that  make  Europe 
picturesque. 

In  the  Rome  of  that  day  everybody  worked.  I  men- 
tioned Athens  and  Jerusalem  and  Florence,  in  attesting 
that  the  city  state  is  an  industrial  commonwealth.  Rome 
is  another  witness.  A  bridge  carpenter  was  called  by 
them  pontifex.  So  highly  did  Rome  honor  manual  labor, 
that  she  made  the  "bridge-builder"  her  loftiest  official: 
Pontifex  Maximus,  highest  priest.  In  a  theocratic  state, 
to  be  supreme  priest  is  to  hold  the  most  powerful  of 
positions.  So  mighty  is  the  racial  resonance  awakened 
even  yet  by  that  sacred  bridge-building  occupation,  the 
Pope  calls  himself  by  that  ancient  handicraftsman: 
Pontiff. 

We  shall  see  as  these  chapters  advance  that  city- 
worship  is  ever  a  theocracy.  To  this  people,  Rome  was 
their  deity.  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  was  another  way  of 
saying:  "An  industrial  and  sovereign  democracy,  in- 
stituted by  Heaven  and  divinely  fostered."  To  this  day 
tourists  will  observe  that  the  road  through  the  Roman 
Forum  is  the  "Sacred  Way,"  via  sacra.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  empire,  the  deification  of  the  emperors  declined 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  49 

without  doubt  into  a  political  deviee.  But  at  the  be- 
ginning it  was  not  so.  Rome  was  a  theocratic  society. 
The  state  was  God  in  visible  form;  noblest  object  of 
endeavor  and  sacrifice.  Claudian,  when  he  called  her 
ROMA  DEA,  Consort  of  Jupiter,  mother  of  arts,  Goddess 
Rome,  was  not  employing  the  language  of  hyperbole. 
He  cries  out:  "Rise,  reverend  Mother,  coeval  with  the 
sky!  Iron  fate  shall  never  master  thee,  till  Nature 
changes  her  laws  and  rivers  run  backward." 

But  what  if  the  covenant  be  broken  between  man  and 
this  Nature  world  below,  not  by  Nature  changing  her 
laws  but  by  man  departing  from  Nature?  Claudian  seems 
not  to  have  perceived  that  possibiHty.  The  Romans 
after  a  time  began  to  covet  an  existence  devoid  of  work. 
Which  means,  being  interpreted,  an  existence  divorced 
from  Nature.  Work  is  the  process  whereby  man  and  the 
landscape  get  into  friendship  with  each  other.  Every 
child  of  Nature  is  a  worker;  has  to  be,  in  order  to  Uve. 
And  every  worker  is  a  child  of  Nature. 

We  have  a  contemporary  document,  testifying  to  this 
change  from  a  natural  civihzation  over  into  a  commercial 
civiUzation.  Cato,  in  his  treatise  on  Agriculture,  pic- 
tures the  Romans  of  this  transition  period  leaving  the  soil, 
congregating  in  the  urban  centers  as  absentee  landlords, 
and  driving  the  laborers  with  harsh  exactions.  Servitude 
is  beginning  to  appear;  the  "family,"  in  Cato's  use  of 
the  term,  being  a  midway  step  apparently  from  the  free 
labor  of  the  former  period  into  the  slavery  that  did  all 
the  work  in  Rome  when  the  decadence  had  got  well  under 
way.  Cato  is  laying  down  a  manual  for  the  overseer  of 
one  of  these  absentee  farm-estates: 

"These  shall  be  the  bailiff's  duties.  He  shall  keep 
good  discipUne.  The  hoHdays  must  be  observed.  The 
family  is  not  to  suffer,  to  be  cold,  to  be  hungry.     He  is  to 


50  THE  FREE  CITY 

keep  it  busy,  as  thus  he  will  more  easily  restrain  it  from 
mischief  and  thieving.  The  bailiff  must  not  be  a  saun- 
terer;  he  must  always  be  sober;  he  must  not  go  out  to 
dinner.  He  must  square  accounts  with  his  master  often. 
The  mechanic,  the  hirehng,  the  sharpener  of  tools,  he 
must  never  keep  more  than  a  day.  He  should  know  how 
to  do  every  farm  task,  and  should  do  it  often.  If  he  does 
this,  he  will  know  what  is  in  the  minds  of  the  family, 
and  they  will  work  more  contentedly.  He  should  be  the 
first  to  get  up  and  the  last  to  go  to  bed;  should  see  that 
the  house  is  locked  up,  that  each  is  sleeping  where  he  be- 
longs, and  that  the  cattle  are  fed." 

There  and  then,  the  decline  of  Rome  set  in.  When  a 
man  is  a  worker,  half  of  his  deHght  is  in  producing,  and 
the  other  haK  in  consuming.  When  the  productive  side 
is  lacking,  all  a  man's  deHght  is  to  consume.  Luxuri- 
ousness  is  the  consequence.  There  developed  in  Rome  an 
idler  class;  among  whom  the  art  of  consuming  wealth  got 
to  be  a  specialty.  To  satisfy  the  luxurious  appetites  of 
the  rich,  aggressions  on  neighboring  states  began.  MiU- 
tary  force  supplanted  civihan  control.  And  now  The 
Commune  is  at  an  end.  Fierce  egoisms,  kept  under  when 
the  municipahty  was  all  and  in  all,  lift  themselves  like 
snake-haired  furies.  We  see  Marius  and  Sulla  tearing 
the  repubhc  to  pieces  for  their  own  greatness.  Out  of  a 
clashing  of  egoisms,  one  ego  is  sure  to  emerge,  iron-heeled, 
heavy-fisted.  An  emperor  arises  on  the  ruins  of  the  re- 
public. Ovid  has  to  admit  that  Astrea,  goddess  of  truth 
and  innocency,  has  departed:  terras  astrea  reliquit. 
Democracy  is  at  an  end.     Autocracy  has  begun. 

But  so  resplendent  a  fight  could  not  entirely  be  dimmed. 
In  the  Roman  Cathofic  Church,  the  Rome  of  the  early 
primal  splendor  fived  on,  and  stiU  fives.  The  torch  held 
aloft  by  that  Church  has  not  always  burned  with  a  clear 


WHEN  ROME  WAS  A  REPUBLIC  51 

and  smokeless  flame.  But  she  has  been  the  most  con- 
secutive spiritual  tradition  that  has  illumined  Earth's 
dark  and  dingy  time-field.  During  her  imperial  cen- 
turies Rome  was  the  mistress  of  the  world;  so  that  the 
streams  both  of  Attica  and  of  Israel  emptied  into  the 
ItaUan  flood.  So  the  Roman  Church  caught  up  into  her 
ample  bosom  the  spirit  of  beauty  from  Athens  and  from 
Judea  the  spirit  of  righteousness.  But  her  roots  are 
Roman.  Her  tongue  is  Latin;  the  language  that  has 
given  us  our  greatly  spiritual  words:  patriotism,  father, 
mother,  citizenship,  civics,  city,  civihzation,  piety,  com- 
munion, sanctity,  art,  grace,  justice,  municipaUty,  sacra- 
ment, equity,  redeemer,  humankind,  rehgion  —  a  muster 
well  nigh  without  end. 

As  to  many  a  count  in  the  indictment  against  her,  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  culpable;  her  own  historians 
concede  it.  But  on  one  point  she  has  not  been  culpable. 
Steadfast,  as  when  the  bright  shining  of  a  candle  giveth 
hght,  she  has  kept  alive  in  the  world  a  glow  of  spiritual- 
mindedness.  At  this  moment,  when  the  muddy  tides  of 
secularism  are  threatening  to  inundate  all  things  with 
their  sHme,  reducing  the  high  colorings  of  civihzation  to 
grime  and  flatness,  she  is  the  chiefest  breakwater.  Herein 
the  Roman  Church  is  proving  herself  to  be  the  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  most  theocratic  city  state  that  ever  kissed 
our  planet  into  glory. 


CHAPTER  V 

ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP 

ALL  Greece  is  not  so  large  as  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. And  in  the  classic  age,  little  Greece  was 
divided  into  more  than  a  dozen  sovereign  state- 
hoods.  There  is  the  clue  to  Grecian  history  —  and 
Grecian  greatness.  Conditions  would  have  permitted 
nationhood  instead  of  cityhood,  had  the  Greeks  been 
willing  to  surrender  their  citizenly  character.  The  Greek 
race  composed  one  racial  unit,  of  one  speech  and  stock, 
more  truly  than  the  population  of  the  American  nation 
composes  one  racial  unit.  Homer  speaks  of  "Hellas," 
meaning  all  Greece.  He  mentions  the  "Hellenes,"  as 
the  general  group  of  which  the  municipal  communities 
were  parts.  Conceivably  this  Hellas  might  have  been 
the  political  formation.  But  the  Greeks  were  citizens 
rather  than  nationalists;  metropolitan,  not  cosmopolitan. 
Said  Aristotle:  "The  greatest  state  is  not  where  popula- 
tion is  most  numerous."  The  Greek  culture  is  civic. 
Her  genius  is  municipal.  They  regarded  the  city  state  as 
the  highest  form  of  political  Ufe.  So  they  developed  a 
civilization  that  is  the  wonder  and  the  envy  of  all  culti- 
vated minds. 

The  Greeks  held  to  the  polity  of  small  states,  because 
they  so  dearly  prized  self-government.  They  knew  that 
this  thing  so  grandiloquently  called  "representative  gov- 
ernment" is  but  a  high-swelling  phrase  to  cover  up  eva- 

52 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  53 

sion  of  their  public  duties  by  the  people;  an  excuse  for 
egoistic  absorption  in  the  pursuit  of  private  happiness. 
In  that  day  there  were  abnormal  individuals  who  were 
lacking  in  citizenly  interest.  "Idiot"  was  the  term  they 
applied  to  such.  It  was  a  technical  term.  It  meant, 
engrossment  by  a  person  in  his  private  affairs,  to  the 
forgetfulness  of  his  duties  to  the  state;  still  seen  in  our 
word  "idiosyncrasy,"  "that  which  individuahzes." 
The  pathological  extension  of  the  term  in  our  day  is 
scientifically  correct.  Visitors  to  an  idiot  asylum  are 
informed  that  the  determining  test  of  an  idiot  is  persistent 
egoism;  his  want  of  interest  in  the  social  union. 

The  Greek  writers  on  poUtical  science  accepted  the 
city  state  as  the  normal  form.  They  did  not  greatly 
argue  this;  they  took  it  for  granted.  They  believed  that 
all  right-minded  people  will  wish  self-government;  be- 
cause only  under  self-government  do  pubHc-minded  people 
appear  and  selfishness  is  repressed.  Had  Aristotle  been 
told  that  a  people  would  arise  called  the  American  nation, 
ninety-nine  per  cent  of  whom  would  be  "idiots"  —  that 
is,  their  minds  chiefly  engaged  with  private  affairs  —  he 
would  have  refused  to  let  such  a  prophecy  enter  his  ear 
channels;  would  have  regarded  it  as  a  degradation  im- 
possible to  the  human  species.  He  beUeved  that  man  is 
so  naturally  noble  as  to  crave  a  personal  and  direct 
participation  in  the  shaping  of  his  destiny.  So  in  his 
"PoUtics"  he  treats  only  of  municipal  states.  Repre- 
sentative government,  that  seduction  to  all  sloth  and  aU 
selfishness,  he  put  out  of  his  mind. 

Attica,  of  which  Athens  was  the  city-center,  was  thirty 
miles  from  east  to  west.  America  is  three  thousand  miles 
from  east  to  west.  The  Athenians  beheved  that  the  state 
should  be  small  in  order  that  the  people  might  be  great. 
An  Athenian  was  a  whale  in  a  tiny  sea.    An  American  is 


5i  THE  FREE  CITY 

a  minnow  in  an  ocean.  Well  did  they  understand  this 
relation  between  greatness  in  the  people  and  smallness  of 
the  governmental  aggregate.  Said  Aristotle:  "Ten 
thousand  people  are  too  few  for  a  state,  and  a  hundred 
thousand  are  too  many";  an  exaggeration  of  statement, 
doubtless;  but  it  was  spoken  by  perhaps  the  most  mas- 
terly intelUgence  that  ever  concerned  itself  with  poUtical 
science.  The  following  is  the  size  he  laid  down  as  large 
enough  for  a  free  and  independent  statehood:  "When 
several  villages  are  united  in  a  single  community  perfect 
and  large  enough  to  be  nearly  or  quite  self-sufficing." 
Small  states  make  great  peoples;  because  only  in  small 
states  can  the  people  conduct  their  own  affairs,  with  no 
intermediary  to  deflect  their  will  or  narcotize  their  citizenly 
spirit  into  slumber. 

Democracy  is  the  mother  of  the  entire  sisterhood  of 
virtues;  begetter  of  strength,  fountain  of  the  arts,  parent 
of  all  the  nobilities  that  embellish  and  fructify  the  world. 
Democracy  is  self-government;  and  is  found  therefore 
only  in  small  states.  The  word  comes  from  Athens. 
Her  people  —  the  demos  —  could  enjoy  a  personal  par- 
ticipation in  government  only  when  the  poUtical  aggre- 
gate was  small  in  its  geographical  area.  The  founders  of 
the  American  nation  were  candid  to  admit  that,  in  de- 
stroying the  thirteen  local  sovereignties  and  setting  up  a 
centralized  power,  they  were  leaving  democracy  behind. 
Said  the  Federalist,  in  Paper  No.  14:  "The  natural  hmit 
of  a  democracy  is  that  distance  from  the  central  point 
which  will  but  just  permit  the  most  remote  citizens  to 
assemble  as  often  as  their  public  functions  demand." 
Self-subsistence,  which  is  the  irreducible  minimum,  is 
also,  according  to  Aristotle,  the  maximum;  any  increase 
of  size  being  then  a  departure  from  democracy  into  some 
other    poUtical    form.     Representative    government    is 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  55 

government  by  politicians.  Athens  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  politicians.  She  had  no  poUtical  parties.  On 
current  questions  when  they  arose,  the  people  divided 
into  opposing  groups;  but  there  was  no  permanency  in 
these  alignments.  A  tribe  of  professional  poHticians,  or 
a  civil  service  separate  from  the  body  of  the  people  — 
Athens  refused  to  accept  so  imcivic  a  posture  of  affairs. 

Athens  was  a  commune.  The  state  owned  the  land, 
the  mines,  the  harbors,  the  theatres  —  and  the  people. 
And  the  scheme  worked.  When  the  state  is  large,  any 
extension  of  governmental  activity  builds  a  bureaucracy, 
and  chloroforms  the  populace.  When  the  state  is  small, 
extension  of  governmental  activity  is  fellowship,  co- 
operation; because  then  the  state  is  but  the  individual 
raised  to  his  Nth  power.  Athens  farmed  out  her  mines 
to  contractors  in  perpetuity,  for  a  fixed  sum.  It  was  her 
public  ownership  of  the  silver  mines  at  Laurium  that  gave 
Athens  the  money  wherewith  to  fight  the  Persians;  and 
helped  to  build  the  public  works  that  stand  to  this  day 
in  monumental  splendor.  "A  fountain  of  silver,"  was 
the  exultant  epithet  bestowed  by  ^Eschylus  on  that  state- 
owned  silver  mine  at  Laurium.  Her  other  properties, 
the  commune  rented  out;  mostly  in  annual  leases.  Once 
some  private  parties  got  into  the  habit  of  going  down  to 
the  docks  at  Piraeus  and  buying  up  a  cargo  of  grain,  thus 
monopolizing  the  food  supply.  The  state  forestalled 
these  forestallers;  built  publicly-owned  warehouses  for 
storing  grain,  and  for  retaihng  it  to  the  people  at  cost. 
The  money  of  orphans  was  managed  for  them  by  the 
state. 

In  Athens,  public  affairs  were  numerous,  and  private 
affairs  were  few.  That  is  the  secret  of  Athenian  great- 
ness. Aristotle  said  it  is  the  secret  of  all  greatness.  The 
one  problem  before  the  human  race,  said  he,  is  so  to  dis- 


56  THE  FREE  CITY 

pose  the  higher  natures  that  they  shall  be  unwilHng  to 
aggrandize  themselves,  and  the  lower  natures  that  they 
shall  be  unable  to  aggrandize  themselves.  Athens  did 
much  for  her  people.  In  return  she  asked  her  people  to 
do  much  for  her.  She  made  large  claims  on  their  devo- 
tion. Said  Plato:  "The  children  belong  less  to  their 
parents  than  to  the  city."  And  Aristotle  was  even  more 
emphatic:  "No  one  should  think  he  belongs  to  himself; 
all  belong  to  the  state." 

Because  the  commune  was  thus  the  principal  property 
owner,  Athens  had  a  Fortunatus  wallet  supplying  all  her 
necessities.  How  this  opulence  was  expended,  her  public 
monuments  testify.  Wealth  was  owned  by  the  city; 
and  therefore  was  used  to  glorify  the  city.  Pericles  for- 
mulated this  into  a  set  poHcy:  "Wealth  should  be  laid 
out  on  such  works  as  would  be  eternal  monuments  of  her 
glory,  and  which  during  their  execution  would  diffuse  a 
universal  plenty.  For,  as  so  many  kinds  of  labor  and 
such  a  variety  of  instruments  and  materials  were  req- 
uisite to  these  undertakings,  every  art  would  be  exerted; 
almost  the  whole  city  would  be  in  pay,  and  at  the  same 
time  both  adorned  and  supported  by  herself." 

A  fear  is  expressed  nowadays  that  democracy  means  a 
flattening  of  life  down  into  economic  materiahty,  wherein 
beauty  and  color  and  the  graces  that  polish  om*  existence 
would  be  extinguished.  A  nationalistic  fabric  makes  in 
that  direction  —  the  cold  impersonahty  of  a  government 
administered  by  bm-eaucrats.  Athens  was  not  a  bureau- 
cracy; she  was  a  democracy.  Not  only  her  legislation, 
but  her  executive,  judicial,  and  ambassadorial  affairs  were 
administered  by  the  people  in  direct  assembly.  There 
was  no  parhament,  no  congress,  no  cabinet.  In  that 
sovereign  and  free  assembly,  all  of  the  citizens  were  on  an 
equal  footing.     To  it    belonged    cobblers,  horse-shoers, 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  57 

ship  carpenters,  metal  smiths.  But,  so  far  from  dragging 
the  polity  of  state  down  to  a  bread-and-butter  level,  her 
public  program  was  more  continuously  sustained  on  a 
plane  of  sentiment  and  ideality  than  has  elsewhere  been 
seen  since  the  beginning  of  days.  Municipality  is  the 
guardian  of  culture,  depository  of  freedom  and  splendor, 
wellspring  of  delights. 

Commercially-minded  moderns  are  inclined  to  rebuke 
Athens  for  what  is  deemed  an  excess  of  romance  and 
poetry.  Cunningham  takes  her  to  task  for  these  "un- 
remunerative "  pubHc  works.  Says  he:  "The  Hues  on 
which  the  energies  and  enterprises  of  the  citizens  were 
directed  by  Pericles  were  not  those  which  favored  the 
permanent  prosperity  of  the  industrial  and  commercial 
life  of  the  city.  The  works  of  Pericles  served  no  economic 
purpose  but  that  of  display."  "Display!"  All  art  is 
naught  but  the  habit  of  and  proficiency  in  display.  To 
express  the  soul  in  visible  form  —  is  it  not  quite  the 
choicest  and  praiseworthiest  of  instincts?  The  world  as 
a  whole,  the  planets  and  all  the  scheme  of  things  entire 
—  I  deem  it  but  an  attempt  at  artistic  self-expression 
on  the  part  of  The  Absolute;  God's  mania  and  lust  of 
ostentation.  The  Phoenicians  were  exactly  what  Cun- 
ningham would  seem  most  to  admire.  The  factories  of 
Tyre  sang  the  song  of  gain.  Her  colonies  were  for  pur- 
poses of  commerce.  Tyrian  merchandise  floated  on  every 
known  sea.  And  behold  her,  sordid,  unrememberable; 
crumbled  into  a  mound  of  sifting  sand.  At  Lake  Maoris 
in  Egypt,  slave  labor  toiled  at  "remunerative"  tasks;  to 
reclaim  tillable  areas.  Does  Lake  Maoris  stand  as  a 
name  to  conjure  with?  Athens  gave  herself  to  civic  art; 
and  has  haunted  all  subsequent  history. 

Athenians  had  poHtical  genius.  They  knew  that  in 
founding  a  state,  sentiment  is  a  utihty.    By  these  "un- 


58  THE  FREE  CITY 

remunerative"  works  wherewith  she  decked  herself, 
there  was  wrought  in  the  breasts  of  her  people  a  feeling 
for  the  city.  They  were  moved  to  eager  fidehties,  glad 
self-effacement.  Municipal  interests  bulked  larger  than 
ego  interests.  They  were  tethered  to  the  state  by  an 
impalpable  cordage.  Let  a  hint  be  whispered  that 
Athens  was  in  danger,  mothers  gave  their  sons  to  die  for 
her  with  joy.  Impressing  a  soldiery  by  forced  draught 
would  have  been  accounted  a  civic  disgrace.  In  time  of 
war  her  men  were  in  the  battle  front  as  the  rock  on  which 
their  city  was  founded.  Witness  the  buffet  they  dealt 
to  the  pride  of  Darius;  at  Marathon  a  handful  of  them 
put  the  fear  of  their  God  into  all  the  satraps  of  Persia. 
And  in  time  of  peace,  their  self-devotion  took  no 
hoUday. 

These  folk  of  Attica  had  weighed  the  value  of  material 
possession  divorced  from  spiritual  aims,  and  found  it 
wanting.  What  signifies  a  world  full  of  wealth,  if  the 
heart  be  full  of  woe?  The  Midas  parable  was  their  ex- 
pression of  the  worthlessness  of  mere  money-riches. 
Granted  the  gift  of  turning  whatsoever  he  touched  into 
gold,  Midas  went  about  using  the  power:  turned  house 
and  furniture  and  chariot  into  shiny  24-karat  metal.  He 
became  hungry;  lo,  the  food  he  touched  turned  into  gold. 
He  grasped  a  goblet  of  water;  the  Uquid  turned  to  gold. 
In  anguish  he  clasped  his  child  to  him;  the  child  trans- 
formed into  a  statue  of  gold.  On  his  bended  knees, 
Midas  besought  high  heaven  to  remove  from  him  the 
cursed  gift.  Better  to  be  embowered  in  fellowship,  with 
labor  and  privations,  than  imprisoned  in  a  golden  hell. 

Athens  had  no  wealthy  class;  no  set  comparable  to  the 
monarchs  of  Mesopotamia,  the  merchants  of  Phoenicia,  or 
the  Carthaginian  magnates.  But  she  had  a  wealthier 
wealth  —  the  sacrificial  service  of  her  people.    Adorning 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  59 

her  with  the  pinnacles  of  fame  and  strength  and  im- 
mortality, they  subordinated  all  things  to  mmiicipal  suc- 
cess. The  city  was  their  freehold.  With  ministerial 
devotion  they  lived  for  her  and  wrought  for  her.  A  living 
wellhead  was  with  them,  out  of  which  they  drank  blessed- 
ness every  minute.  Domestic  simplicity  and  communal 
magnificence  —  this  was  the  miracle  the  Athenians  gave 
to  the  world. 

Pericles  in  his  oration  over  the  dead  bodies  of  those 
fallen  in  a  war,  is  classic  in  his  description  of  the  type 
of  man  begotten  by  the  principle  of  municipality:  "We 
regard  a  man  who  takes  no  interest  in  public  affairs,  not 
as  indolent  but  as  good-for-nothing;  and  if  few  of  us  are 
originators,  we  are  all  sound  judges  of  a  poHcy.  The 
great  impediment  to  action  is,  in  our  opinion,  not  dis- 
cussion but  the  want  of  that  knowledge  which  is  gained 
by  discussion  preparatory  to  action.  We  have  a  pecuUar 
power  of  thinking  before  we  act;  and  of  acting,  too. 
Whereas  other  men  are  courageous  upon  ignorance,  but 
hesitate  upon  reflection.  They  are  surely  the  bravest 
spirits  who,  having  the  clearest  sense  both  of  the  pains 
and  pleasures  of  Ufe,  do  not  on  that  account  shrink  from 
danger." 

"Such,"  said  he  in  closing,  "is  the  city  for  whose  sake 
these  men  nobly  fought  and  died;  they  could  not  bear 
the  thought  that  she  might  be  taken  from  them.  And 
every  one  of  us  who  survives  should  gladly  toil  on  her 
behalf.  I  have  dwelt  upon  the  greatness  of  Athens  be- 
cause I  want  to  show  you  that  we  are  contending  for  a 
higher  prize  than  those  who  enjoy  none  of  these  privileges. 
I  would  have  you  day  by  day  fix  your  eyes  upon  the  great- 
ness of  Athens,  until  you  become  filled  with  the  devo- 
tion of  her.  And  when  you  are  impressed  by  the  spectacle 
of  her  glory,  reflect  that  this  state  has  been  acquired  by 


60  THE  FREE  CITY 

men  who  knew  their  duty  and  had  the  courage  to  do  it. 
The  sacrifice  which  they  collectively  made  was  repaid  to 
them.  They  received  a  praise  which  grows  not  old;  and 
the  noblest  of  sepulchres  —  I  speak  not  of  that  in  which 
their  remains  are  laid,  but  of  that  in  which  their  glory 
survives." 

True.  But  it  was  not  the  whole  truth.  The  fanatical 
attachment  of  Athenians  to  their  city  was  deeper  than 
Pericles  and  his  generation  perceived.  He  Uved  in  an 
age  of  culmination.  The  fifty-year  period  of  splendor 
known  by  his  name  was  the  outflowering  of  roots  long  pre- 
paring. That  popular  devotion  had  not  been  achieved 
by  appeals  to  their  reason.  Logic  of  the  intellect  is  like 
sunshine  in  winter;  clear,  but  freezing.  Athens  owed  her 
greatness,  not  to  citizenship,  but  to  the  religion  of 
citizenship. 

Religion  made  Rome  great.  It  was  religion  also  that 
made  Athens  great.  Xenophon  informs  us  that  Athens 
had  more  religious  festivals  than  any  other  of  the  Greek 
states.  Her  name  derived  from  her  patron  deity,  Pallas 
Athena.  Athens  was  a  theocracy;  she  regarded  herself 
as  the  corporeal  manifestation  of  an  unseen  presence, 
who  was  the  Protectress  of  the  city,  and  Whom  in  turn 
the  city  aided  and  defended.  The  AcropoHs  was  an  altar- 
rock.  Atop  it  stood  the  temple  of  Athena,  which  was  also 
the  state  capitol.  There  was  no  distinction  between 
church  and  state.  A  rehgion  independent  of  statehood, 
and  capable  of  existing  if  the  state  disappeared!  Atheni- 
ans would  have  scorned  a  rehgion  so  anemic  and  un- 
citizenly.  It  has  remained  for  moderns  to  achieve  the 
discovery  of  sacred  things  as  a  department  of  life  divorced 
from  secular  things;  a  population  bifurcated  into  rain- 
bow-chasers and  denizens  of  the  dungliill;  mooners  and 
muckers.     In  Athens,  an  ideahst  was  not  content   until 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  61 

his  idealism  had  got  harnessed  up  to  actuaHty.  And  the 
actualists  were  uneasy  until  their  actuahty  was  leavened 
by  idealism's  yeasty  ferment.  None  but  the  theocratic 
eras  have  produced  art.  Theocracy  means,  The  union  of 
reUgion  and  worldliness.  It  is  the  joining  of  ideaUty  and 
materiality.  But  that  conjunction  is  art  —  invisibilities 
emblemed  forth  and  taking  physical  embodiment. 

In  Attica  there  was  no  set-apart  priestly  class.  The 
father  was  priest  in  his  family;  and  the  chief  magistrate 
was  priest  in  the  state.  The  secular  life  was  shot  through 
with  sanctities.  In  the  public  assembly  the  people  re- 
ceived and  despatched  embassies,  heard  reports  from 
generals  in  the  field,  decided  peace  and  war,  legislated 
for  and  administered  the  state.  Whenever  a  speaker 
mounted  the  tribune  to  address  the  assembly,  he  first 
waited  while,  over  the  silent  mass  of  people,  a  prayer  was 
offered.  No  one  was  supposed  to  speak  unless  he  first 
had  invoked  the  Unseen.  Life  in  the  countryside  was  a 
round  of  invocation.  Plowing,  seedtime,  flowering  time 
and  vintage  —  every  part  of  the  husbandman's  fife  was 
accompanied  with  worship.  Men  went  about  their 
daily  tasks  reciting  sacred  hymns.  The  Confederations 
or  Amphictyonies,  which  united  the  city  states  of  Greece 
for  common  tasks,  were  as  much  rehgious  as  political. 
The  Amphictyony  of  Thermopylae  was  an  Association 
for  offering  in  the  temple  there  a  united  worship.  Its 
members  met  at  that  shrine  in  a  federal  festival;  to  eat 
together  the  common  meal,  offer  prayers,  sing  hymns, 
and  witness  sacred  plays. 

This  municipal  republic  of  Attica  was  a  part  of  the 
natural  world.  She  had  PenteHcus  to  give  her  marble; 
the  blossoms  of  Hymettus,  for  honey;  the  Attic  plain, 
for  furrow-fat;  the  forests  on  the  slopes  of  Thessaly,  for 
shipbuilding;  and  the  city-center,  Athens,  for  connection 


62  THE  FREE  CITY 

with  the  outside  world.  The  oUve  tree  is  a  specialty  in 
Attica.  It  was  accounted  a  gift  to  her  people  from  Athena 
herself.  And  to  this  day  the  oUve  branch  is  the  symbol 
of  fellowship  and  peaceable  incUnations.  Megara,  her 
next-door  neighbor,  gave  Athens  trouble.  And  what  did 
Athens?  She  submitted  the  dispute  to  arbitration.  The 
Athenians  had  all  the  expanse  of  heaven  to  swell  up  into. 
Then  how  could  they  covet  the  land  of  others?  In  com- 
parison with  other  landscapes,  Attica  does  not  shine. 
The  soil  is  thin.  The  north  wind  prevails  during  much 
of  the  year;  so  that  we  see  Boreas  portrayed  in  their 
carvings  as  a  bearded  imcouth  man  roughly  dressed.  The 
dust  clouds  in  summer  are  grievous  to  the  lungs,  and 
breed  eye  troubles.  Nevertheless  the  Athenians  thought 
no  other  spot  could  compare  with  theirs.  The  picture  of 
this  people  presented  by  Euripides  presents  them  "ever 
walking  gracefully  through  the  most  luminous  ether." 
Pindar  calls  Athens  "the  violet-crowned."  Sophocles 
sings  of  her  "brightly-shining  shores." 

So  attached  were  they  to  their  soil,  they  deified  it. 
Their  adoration  of  Nature  was  not  an  affair  of  verse- 
making  and  the  weaving  of  epithets  —  poems  to  the 
buttercup  and  the  asphodel.  It  mounted  into  a  worship. 
They  were  not  content  with  Odes  To  Springtime.  Spring- 
tide was  to  them  a  very  ecstasy;  with  a  Dionysiac  festival 
they  welcomed  her.  The  fructifying  field  was  deemed  a 
company  of  spirits;  so  they  erected  a  temple  to  Demeter 
at  Eleusis  and  paid  torchlight  processions  thither.  And 
when  was  come  the  summertime,  the  Panathenea  made 
the  day  a  rapture.  That  festival  terminated  in  the 
sweep  of  all  the  citizens  up  the  Propylea  steps  of  the 
Acropolis  to  the  shrine  of  the  Virgin  Goddess;  which 
processional,  Phidias  carved  into  the  frieze  of  the  Parthe- 
non.    In  those  happy  days,  sang  Keats, 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  63 

Holy  were  the  haunted  forest  houghs; 
Holy  the  air,  the  water  and  the  fire. 

The  people  felt  a  blood-kinship  with  the  lily  of  the  fields, 
with  lark-notes  descending  from  the  blue,  with  the  ca- 
thedral music  of  the  sea,  with  the  white  marble  streaking 
Pentelican  Mount,  with  nesting  birds  in  the  hedgerow. 
Nearly  all  of  the  stamps  on  the  coins  of  the  earUest  and 
best  period  are  religious  in  their  theme.  Without  the 
hovering  Presence,  Athenians  could  not  work  or  play  or 
eat. 

The  statue  of  Pallas  Athena  in  the  center  of  the  city 
was  called  from  her  name,  the  Palladium.  So  long  as 
that  was  unviolated,  and  kept  from  enemy  hands,  she 
would  continue  her  favor  to  her  people.  This  is  why 
home  rule  was  with  them  a  religious  necessity.  To  let 
their  city  go  into  a  mastership  placed  outside!  it  would 
have  been  deemed  a  sacrilege.  Forever  after,  Pallas 
Athena  would  have  averted  her  face  from  the  recreant 
ones.  From  this,  "palladium"  has  come  to  mean  the 
test  and  guarantee  of  civic  honor.  Civic  patriotism 
awoke  in  them  a  zest  of  civic  freedom.  And  the  unceas- 
ing struggle  for  freedom  kept  their  citizenship  vigilant. 
Sang  Euripides: 

Had  He  not  turned  us  in  His  hand,  and  thrust 
Our  high  things  low,  and  shook  our  hills  as  dust, 
We  had  not  been  this  splendor. 

This  necessity  to  defend  their  municipal  liberty  wove 
bonds  of  beautiful  communion  betwixt  the  citizens. 
The  dear  companionship  when  neighbor  joins  neighbor 
in  fending  from  invasion  their  common  hearth,  was  a 
religious  fellowship.  Athens  was  more  than  an  aggrega- 
tion of  houses  and  fields.  She  was  a  transcendentaUsm. 
The  citizens  walked  about  in  a  meshwork  of  magnetic 


64  THE  FREE  CITY 

threads  floating  invisible.  It  stirred  in  them  rich-blooded 
resolutions;  wrought  them  into  a  great-minded  people, 
valorous  and  coveting  much  honor.  Through  their 
pious  intimacies  with  Nature,  they  were  a  part  of  the 
cosmos;  and  through  their  participation  in  government, 
they  were  factors  in  universal  history.  It  expanded  them 
to  Homeric  size,  gave  them  large  habitual  views  where- 
with to  meet  all  questions  and  all  occasions. 

Said  Pericles:  "An  Athenian  citizen  does  not  neglect 
the  state  because  he  takes  care  of  his  own  household; 
and  even  those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in  business  have 
a  very  fair  idea  of  poUtics."  "A  very  fair  idea  of  poh- 
tics!"  The  world  has  seen  nothing  to  equal  it  since. 
The  average  citizen  in  Athens  was  wiser  than  the  gov- 
ernor of  an  American  state.  Every  citizen  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Grand  Committee.  Their  life  was  one  round 
of  intellectual  excitement.  Residence  in  Athens  was  a 
hberal  education.  They  refused  to  accept  the  notion  of 
orders  and  ranks  of  inteUigence.  The  Council  of  Five 
Hundred  was  chosen  by  lot;  and  every  one,  cobbler  as 
well  as  philosopher,  was  expected  to  serve.  Thus  all 
were  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  stimulus  and  magisterial 
responsibiUty.  The  days  and  nights  of  even  the  com- 
monest folk  were  electric  with  mental  provocation.  It 
was  as  though  earth  had  moved  permanently  into  a  mete- 
oric zone. 

"Nothing  in  overplus,"  was  the  Athenian  motto. 
That  is  always  the  spirit  of  a  municipal  commonwealth. 
Athens  was  a  church,  a  workshop,  a  home,  a  farm,  a 
university,  a  fortress,  a  law-court,  and  a  social  club  — 
rolled  into  one.  These  were  not  separated  vocations,  as 
in  modem  life.  They  were  petals  of  the  same  flower, 
each  petal  receiving  glory  from  the  others,  and  contribut- 
ing its  glory  to  the  others.     When  life  falls  apart  into 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  65 

specialisms,  God  is  hacked  asunder.  Socrates  insisted 
that  the  Good,  the  Beautiful  and  the  True  are  the  same 
thing.  "I  say  that  Athens  is  the  school  of  Greece," 
declared  Pericles;  "the  individual  Athenian  in  his  own 
person  seems  to  have  the  power  of  adapting  himself  to 
the  most  varied  forms  of  action,  with  the  utmost  ver- 
satihty  and  grace.  This  is  no  passing  and  idle  word,  but 
truth  and  fact.  We  shall  assuredly  not  be  without  wit- 
nesses; there  are  mighty  monuments  which  will  make  us 
the  wonder  of  this  and  succeeding  ages." 

Yes;  "truth  and  fact."  To  this  day  it  is  recognized 
that  they  are  of  the  Athenian  type  who  develop  poise  of 
spirit,  serenity,  an  existence  full-orbing  itself  into  physical, 
mental  and  spiritual.  Insane  asylums  to-day  are  in- 
creasing more  rapidly  than  the  population;  because  our 
life  is  departmental.  Mania  is  always  monomania,  an 
engrossing  interest  in  some  one  concernment,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  life's  other  sides.  The  Athenians  were  not 
troubled  with  insane  folk.  They  saw  life  steadily;  they 
hved  life  totally.  Athens  was  a  collectivity  —  Briaireus, 
a  colossal  Person  with  one  heart  and  a  hundred  hands. 
This  union  of  the  secular  and  the  sacred  engendered  in 
the  nerve  plasm  an  awareness  of  totaUty;  curbed  all 
tendencies  to  excess;  inflamed  the  aspirations  of  every 
man  to  achieve  in  himself  a  united  and  perfect  whole. 

Daily  contact  with  thinkers  and  poets  and  scholars  in- 
fused through  the  industrial  mass  an  ethereal  fire.  It 
worked  their  handicraft  into  an  instinct  of  balance  and 
fitness  and  taste.  Pegasus  became  an  ass  with  loaded 
paniers,  to  serve  all  the  uses  of  life.  The  water  jar,  the 
door  lintel,  pots  and  cauldrons  of  the  kitchen,  garments, 
utensils,  harness,  and  the  vehicle  —  all  were  beautiful. 
So  that  to-day  we  dig  up  the  debris  of  the  common  fife 
of  that  people,  and  build  museums  for  cherishing  it. 


66  THE  FREE  CITY 

Athenians  were  not  ascetic.  Neither  were  they  sen- 
sual. Sensuous  is  the  road  between;  and  this  they  fol- 
lowed. Pallas  Athena  was  the  virgin  goddess;  that 
surname,  Pallas,  being  the  Greek  word  meaning  "maiden." 
Her  temple,  the  Parthenon,  was  so  named,  because  it 
meant  "The  Virgin's  Chamber."  The  one  other  divinity 
accorded  a  place  of  honor  on  the  AcropoUs  was  Artemis, 
the  other  virgin  goddess  in  the  ancient  pantheon;  known 
also  as  Diana  the  Huntress.  This  Artemis-Diana  re- 
quired chaste  cehbacy  in  her  priests  and  priestesses.  To 
her  the  Athenian  girls  sacrificed  ceremonially  their  dolls 
and  girlish  toys  before  they  were  married. 

The  Athenian  cult  developed  no  agonizing  theology  of 
individual  sin,  and  redemption  by  the  vicarious  suffer- 
ings of  another.  They  regarded  the  municipality  as  the 
subject  of  salvation.  Morality  means,  a  life  organized 
communally,  so  that  every  part  bears  its  due  ratio  to 
every  other  part;  ratio,  from  which  we  get  "rational," 
and  "reason."  Goodness  is  sweet  reasonableness.  Virtue 
is  sense  of  proportion.  They  developed  pubhc  con- 
science, a  sense  of  obligation  to  the  commonwealth;  and 
in  so  doing  they  found  that  they  had  developed  private 
conscience  as  well.  The  cleansing  of  the  Augean  Stable 
symboUzed  this.  Hundreds  of  horses  and  cattle  in  that 
stable;  and  Hercules  must  cleanse  it  alone.  Cleansing 
each  stable  individually,  were  clearly  beyond  his  powers. 
So  he  turned  through  the  stable  a  river  flowing  near  that 
spot.  Thus  a  large  problem  was  tackled  by  a  power 
equally  large.  And  the  scavenging  was  accomplished. 
The  city  state  makes  for  self  control,  because  it  incul- 
cates into  every  pore  of  man  the  dogma  that  the  claims 
of  society  must  take  precedence  over  individual  desir- 
ings.  A  man  can  be  as  high  as  he  wishes,  provided  the 
municipahty  is  higher.     So  the  blood's  blazing  wildfire 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  67 

is  transmuted  into  altar  flames.  And  the  energies  that 
hitherto  went  into  egoistic  amours,  now  well  up  like  sap 
in  a  tree,  and  foliage  forth  into  forms  of  art-creation. 

After  the  battle  of  Salamis  and  the  departure  of  the 
Persians  from  Attica,  the  Athenians  came  back  to  find 
their  city  in  ashes  and  the  plain  of  Attica  a  ravaged  waste. 
They  had  no  roof  to  cover  them,  no  tillage  for  their  sus- 
tenance. We  moderns,  with  our  notion  of  beauty  as 
something  to  be  added  only  after  a  material  surplus  has 
been  accumulated,  would  have  counselled  to  works  of 
"utiUty."  But  the  Athenians  refused  to  build  for  them- 
selves homes  and  comforts,  whilst  the  municipal  life  lay 
in  ruins.  Living  in  shacks  and  huts,  they  set  themselves 
first  of  all  to  adorn  the  Acropolis  altar-rock.  And  now 
attend:  for  I  know  not  in  the  story  of  man  a  mightier 
instance  of  competency  of  handiwork  and  nobihty  of  de- 
votion :  Out  of  the  ashes  of  their  city  they  cleared  a  space 
—  and  within  twenty  years,  the  Parthenon  was  completed. 

Paul,  visiting  Athens,  was  impressed  by  this  quality  of 
devotion  in  the  make-up  of  the  people.  With  their 
liberahty  of  welcome  to  the  outside  world,  the  Athenians 
invited  him  to  speak  from  their  civic  rostrum.  He  said: 
"Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are 
very  reUgious."  Paul  never  established  a  church  in 
Attica.  Because  they  already  had  a  church.  The  public 
assembly  of  the  citizens  was  called  Ecclesia.  Thence  we 
get  "ecclesiastical." 

Why  then  did  Athens  collapse?  Because  she  and  the 
other  city  states  could  not  combine?  But  they  could 
and  did  combine.  As  Persia  found  to  her  sorrow.  The 
empire  of  Xerxes  and  Darius  could  not  separate  the  Greek 
cities  one  from  the  other  and  conquer  them  separately, 
as  it  had  done  with  the  peoples  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor. 
They  stood  together  —  so  long  as  they  remained  true 


68  THE  FREE  CITY 

city  republics.  When  the  city  of  Rhodes  was  destroyed 
by  an  earthquake,  the  other  cities  in  the  Greek  Confed- 
eration rebuilt  her  into  her  former  magnificence. 

Athens  fell,  for  the  same  reason  that  Rome  fell  —  she 
got  away  from  the  soil,  and  from  the  rehgion  of  labor. 
In  the  early  period,  when  her  municipal  strength  was  col- 
lecting, Hesiod  had  announced:  "Gods  and  mortals  are 
aUke  indignant  with  the  man  who  lives  without  toiUng. 
He  is  hke  to  the  stingless  drones;  for  they  without  labor- 
ing devour  the  product  of  the  honey-bees'  work."  When 
Athenians  lost  contact  with  their  landscape  and  began  to 
huddle  into  the  city  away  from  the  farmlands,  she  ceased 
to  be  a  city  state.  Then  slavery  came  in;  Aspasias,  and 
decadence.  With  Rome  in  the  days  of  her  early  prime, 
and  with  Athens  in  the  foretime,  slavery  had  not  existed. 
In  Homer,  slaves  are  not  found.  He  pictures  a  princess 
of  the  palace  driving  a  laundry  cart  to  the  river  and 
washing  the  soiled  linen.  As  slavery  crept  in,  the  city 
state  went  out;  by  which  I  mean,  the  desire  for  munic- 
ipal independence  —  they  cannot  exist  together.  As 
late  as  the  time  of  Pericles,  slavery  had  not  become  the 
terrible  servitude  we  find  later  on.  A  contemporary  of 
that  era  noticed  that  slaves  in  Athens  could  acquire  a 
fortune  and  Uve  in  luxury.  The  slave  was  permitted 
perfect  freedom  of  speech.  And  was  protected  by  law 
against  excesses  by  his  master.  In  the  Athens  of  that 
time,  the  status  of  a  slave  was  probably  better  than  that 
of  a  factory  hand  in  the  modem  unimaginative  mill. 
Euripides  affii-ms:  "One  thing  only  disgraces  a  slave,  and 
that  is  the  name.  In  all  other  respects  a  slave,  if  he  be 
good,  is  no  worse  than  a  freeman."  But  slavery  is  so 
mischievous  an  ill  that  even  the  name  emits  a  pestilential 
breath.  When  labor  in  Athens  became  associated  with 
a  degraded  class,   the  Commune  was  at  an  end.    In 


ATHENIAN  SELF-OWNERSHIP  69 

fettering  the  workingclass,  Athens  forged  the  fetters 
about  her  own  wrists  and  ankles.  It  was  not  long  after, 
that  the  gold  of  Philip  proved  more  eloquent  with  the 
Athenians  than  the  silver-trumpeted  pleadings  of 
Demosthenes. 

The  Russians  are  to-day  probably  our  most  artistic 
people;  and  the  mir,  or  commune,  is  the  true  focus  of 
their  political  Ufe.  Russia  got  her  civilization  from 
Athens;  or  rather,  from  Constantinople,  after  the  Greeks 
had  fled  thither  on  the  irruption  of  the  northern  barbarians 
into  the  Grecian  peninsula.  Wheresoever  the  influence 
of  Attica  has  penetrated,  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  has 
gone.  The  World-Spirit,  seeking  to  form  Athens  into  an 
oasis  of  permanency,  that  His  name  of  fellowship  and 
truth  might  have  an  enduring  habitation,  failed.  The 
desert  stretches  of  greed  overran  that  pleasant  spot. 
But  the  Uzard  and  the  jackal  and  the  seeping  sands  have 
not  won  a  perfect  triumph.  Though  the  Attic  commune, 
majestic  with  sovereignty,  did  not  endure,  the  soul  of 
her  still  abides.  In  her  fallen  estate  she  sits  by  the  green 
waters  of  the  ^gean,  ruminating  her  antique  imperish- 
able splendor. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL 

THE  Bible  is  Jerusalem's  autobiography.  From 
cover  to  cover,  the  religion  of  citizenship  wrote 
the  book.  Certainly  the  book  tells  of  God.  But 
not  of  an  abstract  far-away  Deity,  or  of  a  pantheistic  God 
gaseously  diffused  through  space.  Those  cobwebs  of  the 
modern  brain  were  not  a  part  of  the  mental  composition 
of  Mediterranean  folk.  That  is  why  they  were  artists, 
and  did  exploits.  The  Jehovah  told  of  in  the  Bible  was 
the  Near-one.  He  had  a  habitation,  which  habitation 
was  his  embodiment,  his  Alter  Ego.  That  habitation 
was  Jerusalem. 

This  connection  between  Jehovah  and  Jerusalem  is 
obscured  by  the  order  in  which  the  books  of  the  Bible 
are  arranged.  To  the  casual  reader  there  seems  to  have 
passed  a  long  stretch  of  time  —  all  of  the  doings  recorded 
in  the  earUer  books,  from  Genesis  to  Joshua  —  during 
which  the  God-idea  was  present;  and  Jerusalem  had  not 
yet  been  founded.  Modern  scholarship,  however,  is 
showing  that  those  supposedly  earUer  narratives  are  not 
earher.  They  were  written  during  the  Jerusalem  era, 
and  dated  back  into  the  past.  The  writers  took  the 
folklore  traditions  and  wove  them  into  a  narrative;  edit- 
ing the  same  from  the  reUgious  viewpoint  which  munic- 
ipal life  at  Jerusalem  had  developed. 

Take  Jerusalem  away,  you  have  cut  from  the  Bible  its 

70 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  71 

heart  and  spinal  jelly.  That  diminishes  not  the  high 
validity  of  the  God-theme.  The  two  cannot  be  demar- 
cated. Jehovah  without  Jerusalem  for  his  home,  was  a 
thought  as  incomprehensible  to  the  IsraeHtes  as  would 
have  been  the  opposite  thought  of  a  Jerusalem  without 
God  for  her  indwelling  and  consecrating  presence.  Re- 
hgion  as  they  understood  it  was  a  practical  everyday 
affair;  part  and  parcel  of  their  political  existence.  The 
Bible  is  not  a  book  of  theology.  It  is  a  manual  of  citi- 
zenship, a  textbook  in  pohtical  science.  The  "saints" 
mentioned  in  its  pages  were  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
self-contemplative  world-shunning  type  that  is  modernly 
associated  with  that  word.  In  that  day  the  saint  was 
a  dedicated  citizen,  more  devoted  to  Jerusalem  than  the 
rest  of  the  population,  extraordinarily  impassioned  unto 
her  freedom  and  renown. 

The  IsraeHtes,  formerly  a  nomad  tribe  in  the  deserts 
neighboring  Egypt,  had  effected  their  release  from  that 
empire  and  under  the  leadership  of  a  chieftain  called 
Moses,  had  pushed  north  into  Canaan.  Here  they 
settled,  driving  the  PhiHstines  out  of  that  hill  country 
downward  to  the  seacoast.  This  expropriation  of  the 
PhiUstine  has  been  held  up  against  Israel  by  critics,  as  a 
ludicrous  set-off  to  her  claim  of  being  the  ethical  pre- 
ceptor of  mankind.  But  the  Philistines  themselves  were 
interlopers;  apparently  having  come  from  Cyprus  not 
long  before  the  coming  of  the  Jews.  There  is  not  a  people 
upon  earth  but  is  occupying  a  region  originally  pos- 
sessed by  another.  To  raise  the  territorial  question  at 
this  tardy  date  would  open  a  morahty  puzzle  quite  beyond 
disentanglement.  The  Jews  traced  a  claim  to  Palestine 
through  far-back  ancestral  inheritance.  Whatever  the 
vaUdity  of  this  claim,  the  IsraeUtes  thought  that  in  pos- 
sessing themselves  of  this  land  they  were  re-entering  a 


72  THE  FREE  CITY 

family  heritage  from  which  they  had  departed  only  for  a 
sojom-n  in  Egypt. 

David  was  the  founder  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  con- 
solidator  of  the  Jewish  state.  The  massive  position  he 
occupies  in  Hebrew  thought,  and  in  the  imagination  of 
mankind,  is  not  extravagant.  He  had  the  municipal 
instinct.  He  was  a  city-builder.  He  had  the  genius  to 
see  that  an  agricultural  folk,  without  a  capital  city  free 
and  sovereign,  could  never  concentrate  its  life  so  as  to  be 
redeemed  from  rustic  boorishness.  Therefore  he  built 
a  city  up  into  which  the  countryside  could  rally  as  its 
administrative  center,  and  through  which  in  manly  self- 
assertion  it  could  take  a  place  among  the  sovereignties 
of  the  earth.  High  up  in  a  nest  among  the  limestone 
crags,  Jerusalem  was  established. 

"Zion"  is  now  become  a  cant  word,  smacking  of  pietism 
and  mental  flabbiness.  In  the  Bible,  however,  it  was  a 
poetic  designation  for  the  capital  city;  and  thence,  for 
the  commonwealth  as  a  whole.  Zion  meant  "shiny." 
Jerusalem  on  its  limestone  summit,  catching  on  her  tower 
tops  the  first  gUnt  of  the  sunrise  and  preserving  the  sun- 
set after  the  surrounding  valleys  were  in  dusk,  was  a 
sparkling  object  in  the  landscape  —  the  Shining  City. 
The  term  caught  the  popular  fancy.  At  first  apparently 
a  slang  term,  it  finally  got  into  hterary  speech:  "The 
Lord  shall  bless  thee  out  of  Zion;  and  thou  shalt  see  the 
good  of  Jerusalem  all  thy  days." 

Jerusalem  the  Shiny  was  radiant  with  more  than  a 
physical  briUiance.  To  the  Israehte  it  possessed  a  lumi- 
nosity mystical  beyond  all  other  objects  in  earth  or  sea 
or  sky.  This  town  was  nothing  less  than  the  capital 
city  of  Lord  God,  the  place  where  his  honor  dwelt  and 
where  his  resplendence  abided.  "Great  is  the  Lord,  and 
greatly  to  be  praised,  in  the  city  of  our  God,  in  the  moun- 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  73 

tain  of  his  holiness.  Beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of 
the  whole  earth,  is  Mount  Zion  the  city  of  the  great  King. 
Walk  about  Zion;  mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks.  For  this 
God  is  our  God,  forever  and  ever." 

To  the  faithful  Israelite  the  defense  of  Jerusalem's 
independent  statehood  and  her  upbuilding  in  majesty, 
became  all  his  pohtics,  all  his  religion.  That  mountain 
range  would  seem  one  of  the  last  places  in  the  world  to 
covet  as  a  homeland;  ravines  torrential  in  winter,  dry 
and  stony  in  summer.  But  to  the  patriotic  Jew  it  was  the 
center  and  garden  of  the  world.  The  rose  of  Sharon, 
heifers  and  bulls  in  the  pasture  of  Bashan,  orchards  of 
pomegranates,  spikenard  and  calamus  with  all  trees  of 
frankincense,  wells  of  living  waters  and  streams  from 
Lebanon,  Jordan's  reedy  banks  and  fish  of  Capernaum  — 
these  were  the  song  of  the  Israelite  from  this  time  for- 
ward. With  the  land's  hard-won  fatness  for  their  nourish- 
ment, and  with  independent  statehood  as  the  sustenance 
of  their  soul,  they  were  self-subsistent.  So  they  coveted 
no  neighbor's  territory;  stretched  out  no  imperiahst 
armies  and  fleets.  Their  pacific  incUnation  seems  to  be 
suggested  in  the  name  they  gave  to  their  capital  — 
Jerusalem,  "City  of  Peace."  Apparently  the  contrast 
between  the  peaceableness  of  Israel  and  the  militarism  of 
the  nation-empires  round  about,  occurred  to  the  mind  of 
Isaiah.  In  close  juxtaposition  he  puts  two  pictures: 
"Every  battle  of  the  warrior  is  with  confused  noise  and 
garments  rolled  in  blood";  but  unto  us  "the  mighty  God, 
the  Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace."  The  final 
act  that  closed  the  Jerusalem  drama  in  a  burst  of  power, 
her  swan  song  as  she  was  about  to  pass  away,  was  ushered 
in  with  a  pronouncement:  "Peace  on  earth,  goodwill  to 
men." 

Like  Athena  unto  the  Attic  commune,  Jehovah  was 


74  THE  FREE  CITY 

the  tutellary  protector  of  the  Jewish  state;  their  gov- 
ernor in  time  of  peace,  the  commander-in-chief  of  their 
army  in  time  of  war.  Deborah  pictures  him  marching  as 
at  the  head  of  a  troop:  "Lord,  when  thou  wentest  out  of 
Seir,  when  thou  marchest  out  of  the  field  of  Edom,  the 
earth  trembled  and  the  clouds  dropped  water."  This 
divine  Presence,  on  the  field  and  in  the  council  chamber 
of  state,  was  symbolized  by  the  ark  of  the  covenant. 
It  was  to  the  Israelite  what  the  palladium  was  to  Athe- 
nians, a  municipal  amulet,  image  of  civic  personification. 

Jehovah  had  given  to  his  people  a  set  of  communal 
rules  and  regulations:  the  Ten  Commandments;  en- 
graven on  two  tables  of  stone.  He  had  made  a  covenant 
with  them:  If  they  would  keep  these  laws,  he  the  Lord 
would  be  their  municipal  Protector  and  Friend:  "Blessed 
shalt  thou  be  in  the  city,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the 
field.  Blessed  shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the 
fruit  of  thy  ground.  Blessed  shall  be  thy  basket  and  thy 
store."  The  Jews  accepted  the  compact.  As  a  sign  and 
seal  of  this  agreement,  the  two  tables  were  placed  in  a 
preciously  wrought  casket,  with  a  pair  of  winged  seraphs 
on  the  top,  symboUzing  the  Spirit  that  would  continue 
to  brood  over  an  obedient  people.  This  casket  was 
called  the  Ark  of  the  Testimony,  or  of  the  Covenant. 

The  installation  of  this  palladium  in  Jerusalem  was  a 
first  duty  with  David  after  founding  the  city.  Like 
Romulus  —  with  whom  he  was  a  close  contemporary  — 
David  was  a  city-builder  because  he  was  a  rehgious 
genius.  With  strong  masculine  sense  he  combined  an 
insight  into  the  psychological  deeps  of  man.  He  had  in- 
tuition that  a  city  does  not  exist  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
sentiment,  prestige,  all  the  powerful  provinces  of  the 
imagination,  whereby  is  evoked  a  citizenly  attachment  in 
the  people,  so  that  man-power  is  forthcoming  unto  the 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  ^  73 

city's  every  need.  "Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it;  except  the  Lord  keep  the 
city,  the  watchmen  waketh  but  in  vain."  Therefore 
"David  prepared  a  place  for  the  ark  of  God,  and  pitched 
for  it  a  tent."  Enemies  were  round  about  and  walls  were 
sorely  needed  to  protect  the  infant  city.  But,  as  with 
the  Athenians  when  they  built  the  Parthenon  for  their 
Athena  before  they  had  houses  for  themselves,  David's 
care  went  first  to  the  mystic  foundations  on  which  Jeru- 
salem was  to  repose.  "David  gathered  all  Israel  together 
to  Jerusalem,  to  bring  up  the  ark  of  the  Lord  imto  his 
place  which  he  had  prepared  for  it." 

The  installation  of  this  Jehovah  palladium  within  the 
Jerusalem  enclosure  was  the  birthday  of  the  Jewish  state. 
And,  as  it  turned  out,  was  one  of  the  cardinal  happenings 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  That  ark  enshrined  the 
moral  law.  Therefore  this  deed  estabhshed  the  Jewish 
commonwealth  on  an  ethical  basis.  Moderns  have  dis- 
covered—  as  they  suppose  —  that  the  social  union  can 
get  along  without  religion;  that  obedience  to  law  needs 
no  transcendental  sanctions,  but  can  be  enforced  by  the 
police  power  —  dragoons,  nightsticks,  a  secret  service 
ramifying  to  every  keyhole;  courts  and  handcuffs  and 
prison  walls.  For  a  little  while  yet,  we  will  be  permitted 
to^  bask  in  this  pleasant  theory.  The  spiritual  power 
bequeathed  to  us  by  the  municipal  theocracies  of  Rome, 
Athens,  and  Jerusalem  is  not  yet  exhausted  of  its 
momentum.  Whilst  that  borrowed  inspiration  continues, 
moderns  can  Uve  without  cultivating  reUgious  power  of 
their  own. 

David  had  no  Bible  to  fall  back  upon;  that  book  was 
not  yet  written.  Roman  law  had  not  put  its  massive 
discipline  on  the  impulses  of  mankind.  Athenian  art 
and  science  had  not  as  yet  radiated  their  sweetness  and 


76  THE  FREE  CITY 

light  into  the  fibers  of  man.  He  had  a  mass  of  wild  hu- 
man energies  to  handle.  And  he  handled  these  untrained 
forces  by  the  psychological  rather  than  the  zoological 
method;  he  wrought  upon  them  from  within,  instead  of 
by  police  power  from  without.  Because  he  was  thus  re- 
Ugious  in  his  approach  to  the  problem,  he  built  a  city  that 
was  destined  to  long  durations  and  mightiest  grandeur. 

This  sanctification  of  the  city  by  formally  establishing 
within  her  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  made  the  Jews  a 
theocratic  municipaHty.  From  that  moment  their  capital 
city  was  God's  capital  too.  David  seems  to  have  had  a 
sense  of  the  historicity  of  the  deed  he  was  enacting.  He 
panoplied  the  event  with  a  ceremonial  pageantry  that 
shines  from  the  recording  page.  The  Jews  now  had  of- 
ficially been  committed  to  the  principle  of  civic  sov- 
ereignty based  on  righteousness  and  sanctioned  by  Jeho- 
vah. From  that  day  the  Hebrews  have  regarded  David 
with  an  almost  divine  veneration.  They  called  their 
capital,  "The  City  of  David."  As  time  went  on,  his 
figure  loomed  with  the  proportions  of  a  demigod.  About 
a  millenium  later,  when  the  populace  in  an  ecstasy  of  de- 
votion to  their  leader  Jesus  sought  a  superlative  title 
wherewith  to  glorify  him,  "Hosanna  to  the  Son  of 
David"  was  their  appellation. 

In  founding  Jerusalem  and  committing  Israel  to  an 
independent  poUtical  status,  David  had  bequeathed  to 
the  Jews  a  stormy  inheritance.  Palestine  was  a  buffer 
state.  Egypt  was  on  one  side;  Assyria  on  the  other. 
Both  claimed  a  suzerainty  over  her.  It  was  a  political 
hornet's  nest.  This  act  by  David  was  Israel's  declara- 
tion of  independence.  It  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to 
Egypt  and  to  Assyria;  also  to  the  Philistines  still  inhabit- 
ing portions  of  the  land.  From  that  time  the  Jews  had 
a  sore  wrestle  of  an  existence.    Almost  without  hyperbole 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  77 

could  she  exclaim,  "They  that  hate  me  without  a  cause 
are  more  than  the  hairs  of  my  head." 

In  addition  to  these  three  outside  enemies,  there  was  a 
fourth  foe:  the  spirit  of  commerciaUsm  that  possessed 
many  of  the  Jews  themselves.  The  question  is  heard 
nowadays,  Why  are  so  many  of  the  Hebrew  race  mer- 
cantilists? Through  two  thousand  years  of  European 
history,  wherever  the  Jews  have  gone,  a  goodly  propor- 
tion of  them  have  been  retailers  and  brokers.  The 
answer  is  found  in  Palestinian  geography.  Canaan  lay 
square  athwart  the  commercial  highways  of  the  ancient 
world.  Between  the  Euphrates  valley,  which  tapped  all 
the  East,  and  Eg3rpt,  which  was  the  emporium  for  the 
western  world,  the  exchange  of  commodities  passed.  The 
route  traversed  Palestine  diagonally,  from  northeast  to 
southwest.  Also  the  route  from  Arabia  up  to  Damascus 
and  Tyre  was  by  way  of  Palestine,  this' highroad  running 
north  and  south.  The  traffic  on  these  trade  routes  begot 
in  hundreds  of  the  Jews,  and  from  earUest  times,  a  ten- 
dency towards  merchandising.  Many  of  them  sold  sup- 
pUes  to  the  passing  caravans.  Many  also  improved  the 
opportunity  to  trade  on  their  own  account.  On  their 
journeys  through  Palestine  the  caravans  had  regular 
halting  places,  which  became  market  towns.  To  these 
centers  the  commercial  Jews  would  resort,  exchanging 
fruits  and  grain  and  olive  oil  and  wine  for  the  merchandise 
of  Egypt  or  of  the  East;  which  in  turn  they  would  retail. 
The  sale  of  Joseph  to  a  caravan  on  its  way  to  Egypt,  is 
photographic  in  the  picture  it  paints  of  the  trading  spirit 
that  was  springing  up. 

To  this  trend  towards  commercialism,  Israel's  inde- 
pendent statehood  ran  counter.  Independence  got  the 
Jews  into  hostile  relations  with  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  thus 
hurting  trade.    In  the  opposite  direction,  trade  and  its 


78  THE  FREE  CITY 

accumulation  of  private  riches  fattened  the  soul  out  of 
the  Jews  who  were  engaged  in  it,  destroying  in  them  the 
citizenly  spirit  and  counselling  to  a  surrender  of  Jewish 
independence.  Thus  her  population  sundered  into  two 
groups:  the  citizens  —  the  "saints"  —  to  whom  Israel's 
civic  freedom  outweighed  a  thousand  gains  of  money; 
and  the  traders,  who  appraised  life  in  terms  of  securities 
negotiable  for  cash.  The  affair  of  the  Golden  Calf  had 
to  do  with  this  clash  of  tendencies. 

Matthew  Arnold  coined  the  word  "Philistine"  to  desig- 
nate people  whose  personality  is  duU  and  indistinct, 
soggy  unaspiring  creatures  content  only  with  material 
goods.  Therein  he  showed  a  true  instinct  of  history. 
The  Philistines  were  of  this  brutish  stripe.  They  waged 
no  war  against  Egypt  or  Chaldea;  they  were  satisfied  to 
be  under  a  suzerainty.  To  eat  and  sleep  and  breed  was 
for  them  all  the  meaning  of  hfe;  as  we  should  express  it 
to-day,  "the  full  diimer  pail."  They  chose  comfortable 
slavery,  rather  than  the  straining  wrestle  for  freedom. 
The  commercial  class  in  Israel  wished  to  reduce  the  Jews 
also  to  a  Philistine  basis.  Among  the  Philistines,  God 
was  an  agricultural  deity,  a  Baal  whose  only  connection 
with  the  inhabiters  of  the  land  was  to  furnish  harvests  in 
great  handfulls  and  provide  fecundation  for  the  herds  and 
flocks.  The  Jews  were  largely  herders.  The  cow  was 
their  principal  means  of  subsistence.  The  Golden  Calf 
was  an  attempt  by  the  trader  class  among  them  to  deify 
their  daily  bread;  beatify  the  belly.  The  Philistines  had 
no  care  for  so  elusive  and  troublesome  a  thing  as  municipal 
freedom;  the  god  they  worshipped  was  the  purveyor  of 
hides  and  milk  and  cheese.  Why  could  not  Israel  accept 
the  same  kind  of  a  religion?  The  Golden  Calf  was  the 
emblem  of  this  poHtical  party  in  the  Jewish  state. 

The  municipal  party,  on  the  other  hand,  would  not 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  79 

worship  Baal;  they  worshipped  Jehovah.  Jehovah's 
glory  demanded  that  Jerusalem,  his  dwelling  place,  be  a 
sovereign  entity  among  the  sovereignties  of  the  earth. 
Says  ".he  prophet  Micah:  "All  people  will  walk,  everyone 
in  the  name  of  his  god;  and  we  will  walk  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  our  God."  It  was  political  science  Micah  there 
was  inculcating;  the  principle  of  municipal  repubhcs, 
each  sovereign  and  distinct,  as  opposed  to  the  fusing 
principle  of  large  commercial  empires.  Jerusalem  as  a 
free  city  was  Jehovah  arising  into  majesty.  Practically 
the  entire  book  of  Psalms  is  a  repetition  of  this  theme. 
The  ego  that  there  speaks  is  scarcely  ever  an  individual 
man  bux  the  municipahty  regarded  as  a  moral  person  in 
feud  with  the  empires  roimd  about  or  with  the  rich  trader 
class  within  the  state.  When  Jerusalem  is  great  and 
free,  Jehovah  is  in  honor.  When  Jerusalem  is  under 
bondage,  Jehovah  is  dishonored:  "O  God,  the  heathen 
are  come  into  thine  inheritance;  they  have  laid  Jerusalem 
on  heaps.     Help  us,  for  the  glory  of  thy  name." 

The  Ark  of  the  Covenant  and  the  Golden  Calf  consti- 
tuted the  emblems  of  these  opposing  parties.  Moses, 
coming  down  from  Sinai  with  the  Ten  Commandments, 
for  placing  inside  the  Ark  and  so  constitutLag  the  pal- 
ladium of  Jewish  statehood,  hurled  these  tables  to  the 
ground  when  he  saw  the  Calf  and  the  people  worshipping 
it.  Beneath  that  folklore  story,  as  beneath  the  poetry 
of  the  Greeks,  lay  an  important  significance.  The  ark- 
worship,  with  its  municipal  meaning,  and  the  Calf- 
worship  with  its  Phihstine  materialist  meaning,  could 
not  get  on  together.  One  of  the  two  must  give  way. 
The  Calf  gave  way.  Municipahsm  triumphed  over  com- 
merciaUsm.  "Moses'  anger  waxed  hot;  and  he  took  the 
Calf  which  they  had  made,  and  burnt  it  in  the  fire,  and 
ground  it  to  powder,  and  strowed  it  upon  the  water,  and 


80  THE  FREE  CITY 

made  the  children  of  Israel  drink  of  it."  Apparently  it 
was  more  than  a  passing  episode.  It  was  a  war  to  the 
knife  between  the  two  tendencies.  We  read,  after  the 
CaK  was  burnt:  "There  fell  of  the  people  that  day  about 
three  thousand  men." 

The  Golden  Calf  is  the  emblem  of  those  in  all  time  who 
have  everything  to  live  with  and  nothing  to  Lve  for. 
Those  Calf-worshippers  wished  to  dwell  in  material  com- 
fort, with  no  Jerusalem  capital  and  no  Ark  of  the  Cov- 
enant summoning  them  to  statehood's  hazardous  ad- 
venture. Had  they  triumphed,  there  would  have  been 
no  Jewish  state,  no  Bible,  no  Jesus  of  GaUlee,  no  city  of 
God  set  on  a  hill  and  irradiating  the  world.  Israel  would 
have  melted  down  into  and  been  absorbed  by  the  peoples 
round  about;  a  peasantry  of  herders,  tributary  \o  Egjrpt 
or  Chaldea.  And  the  history  of  our  planet  would  have 
been  miserably  impoverished.  An  agricultural  region 
that  is  not  a  sovereign  state  is  booked  for  decadence. 
The  city  in  the  midst  thereof  must  be  a  world-capital; 
otherwise  it  is  but  a  trading  town,  and  the  cultivators  are 
robbed  of  self-rulership.  Subject  farmers,  abject  and 
contented,  are  of  the  Philistine  type;  they  shall  develop 
no  moraUty,  no  literature,  no  art.  They  tread  a  down- 
ward path.  Sovereign  farmers,  owning  their  square  of 
territory  and  governing  it  with  no  dictation  from  outside, 
are  of  the  Israel  type. 

In  order  to  catch  the  rural  region  up  into  the  municipal 
current  and  safeguard  the  husbandry  class  from  slumping 
into  slouchiness,  the  Jewish  law-givers  devised  three 
annual  assembhes  of  the  population  at  Jerusalem.  The 
two  principal  ones,  the  Passover  and  the  Feast  of  Booths, 
corresponded  roughly  with  the  spring  and  autumn  po- 
sitions of  the  sun;  celebrations  of  springtide  joy  and  the 
Bunmier's  harvest-home.    The  Feast  of  Pentecost,  seven 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  81 

weeks  after  the  Passover,  was  a  sort  of  rest-time  when  the 
seed-sowing  had  been  gotten  through  with  and  before  the 
maturing  crops  would  need  attention.  Every  male, 
unless  incapacitated  by  sickness  or  infirmity,  was  obliged 
to  attend.  Thus  all  parts  of  the  country  were  made 
participators  in  affairs  of  state.  There  was  no  General 
Assembly,  as  in  Athens;  which  met  on  an  average  every 
three  weeks.  But  the  Jewish  state  was  a  democracy 
none  the  less.  Municipahty  does  not  insist  on  any  one 
formula  of  administrative  head;  can  get  along  with  a 
king,  a  duke,  a  president;  a  variety  of  forms.  Its  only 
insistence  is  that  the  area  of  the  state  be  small  enough 
so  that  the  entire  body  of  citizens  can  be  frequently  con- 
voked. Then  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  assured. 
Israel  was  democracy-by-mass-meeting.  The  thrice- 
yearly  assemblings  of  the  masses  were  judgment  days  for 
those  who  were  at  the  headship  of  affairs.  There  was  no 
peasant  class  in  Israel  —  those  voiceless  multitudes  found 
in  national  forms  of  the  social  union,  backwoods  folk  far 
removed  from  the  capital.  Every  Jew  was  a  citizen; 
and  an  active  participator  in  the  state. 

These  festivals  were  not  merely  political;  they  were 
rehgious.  The  land  was  Jehovah's.  The  Jews  were  his 
guests.  He  wished  his  guests  to  have  a  good  time.  Joy 
was  an  integral  part  of  the  Jewish  faith.  Modernity, 
having  lost  the  principle  of  collectivity,  has  lost  the  spirit 
of  joy.  So  religion  has  come  to  have  a  sour  prohibitory 
cast,  a  thing  one  would  get  along  without  if  one  dared. 
In  a  municipal  repubUc,  religion  is  a  glad  occupation, 
saturated  with  dancing  and  music  and  feasting.  These 
poUtical  festivals  were  termed  "the  set  feasts  of  Jehovah." 
From  all  corners  of  the  land  the  people  gathered,  journey- 
ing up  to  Jerusalem  on  foot  in  pilgrim  bands,  camping  at 
night  wheresoever  darkness  overtook  them.    Here  is  one 


82  THE  FREE  CITY 

of  the  songs  they  used  to  sing  on  the  journey:  "I  was 
glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  Let  us  go  unto  the  house  of 
the  Lord.  Our  feet  shall  stand  within  thy  gates,  O 
Jerusalem.  Jerusalem  is  builded  as  a  city  that  is  com- 
pact together;  whither  the  tribes  go  up,  the  tribes  of  the 
Lord,  imto  the  testimony  of  Israel.  Pray  for  the  peace  of 
Jerusalem;  they  shall  prosper  that  love  thee.  Peace  be 
within  thy  walls  and  prosperity  within  thy  palaces.  For 
my  brethren  and  companions'  sakes  I  will  now  say.  Peace 
be  within  thee.  Because  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  our 
God,  I  wiU  seek  thy  good." 

At  Jerusalem  during  a  feast  the  streets  and  open  places 
were  crowded  with  tents,  the  encampment  overflowing 
far  into  the  suburbs.  The  Feast  of  Booths  in  September 
presents  a  picturesque  scene  —  an  entire  people  setting 
apart  a  week  once  a  year  for  collectively  camping  out: 
"Ye  shaU  take  the  fruit  of  goodly  trees,  branches  of  palm 
trees,  and  boughs  of  thick  trees,  and  willows  of  the  brook; 
and  ye  shall  rejoice  before  Jehovah  your  God  seven  days." 
"Ye  shall  rejoice";  the  flowing  hearty  injunction  of  a 
Householder  welcoming  guests  and  insisting  that  they 
have  a  good  time. 

This  Supreme  Owner  of  the  land  was  —  hke  every  true 
host  —  desirous  that  every  one,  even  to  the  least  of  his 
guests,  should  share  the  good  things.  Jehovah  was  the 
guarantee  of  the  rights  of  the  common  man.  "When 
ye  reap  the  harvest  of  your  land,"  he  commanded,  "thou 
shalt  not  wholly  reap  the  corners  of  thy  field,  neither  shalt 
thou  gather  the  gleanings  of  thy  harvest;  neither  shalt 
thou  gather  every  grape  of  thy  vineyard.  Thou 
shalt  leave  them  for  the  poor  and  stranger.  I  am  the 
Master."  And  again:  "The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired 
shall  not  abide  with  thee  all  night  until  the  morning. 
Thou  shalt  not  curse  the  deaf  nor  put  a  stumbling  block 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  83 

before  the  blind.  I  am  the  Master."  This  common- 
wealth quality  in  Israel's  political  structure  was  mas- 
sively protected.  Every  seventh  year  was  a  Sabbatical 
year;  during  it  the  produce  of  the  land  was  in  common. 
The  law  further  prescribed  that  seven  Sabbatical  years  — 
that  is,  every  fifty  years  —  should  constitute  a  Jubilee 
Year,  when  every  member  of  the  state  who  had  been 
compelled  to  part  with  his  land  or  his  economic  Uberty, 
must  have  it  restored  to  him  without  price. 

The  prophets  —  forthspeakers  —  were  the  mouth- 
pieces of  Jehovah;  and  therefore,  like  the  Tribunes  in 
Rome,  were  the  champions  of  "the  multitude"  against 
class  selfishness  by  the  richer  folk.  Wherefore,  even 
under  kings,  Palestine  was  a  repubhc.  Republic  means, 
the  supremacy  of  the  pubHc  good  over  private  gain.  In 
this  Jewish  repubhc,  Jehovah  protected  the  lowly: 
"The  Lord  is  known  by  the  judgment  which  he  ex- 
ecuteth.  The  needy  shall  not  always  be  forgotten;  the 
expectation  of  the  poor  shall  not  perish  forever."  There 
must  be  no  gulf  sundering  the  population  into  Haves  and 
Have-nots:  "If  thou  draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  hungry, 
to  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free, 
then  shalt  thou  call  and  the  Lord  shall  answer." 

Patriotism  is  another  word  for  locaUsm.  Civic  patri- 
otism is  intense  localism.  Naaman,  a  stranger,  fell  in 
love  with  the  Jewish  state  whilst  on  a  visit  to  Palestine; 
wished  thereafter  to  worship  none  other  but  the  Pal- 
estinian Jehovah.  But  how  to  do  so,  upon  leaving  Pales- 
tine and  returning  to  his  home  in  Syria?  After  the 
following  fashion  he  solved  the  problem:  "And  Naaman 
said.  Shall  there  not  then,  I  pray  thee,  be  given  to  thy 
servant  two  mules'  burden  of  earth?  for  thy  servant  will 
henceforth  offer  neither  burnt  offering  nor  sacrifice  unto 
other  gods,  but  unto  the  Lord."     Civic  patriotism  is 


84  THE  FREE  CITY 

patriotism  heated  to  the  steaming  point.  That  steam  is 
religion.  It  was  the  religion  of  the  Bible;  is  the  only 
virile  vital  rehgion.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  local- 
ism is  the  true  universalism.  All  the  wedges  and  seg- 
ments of  the  earth  meet  at  the  center.  Israel  in  her 
peaceableness  is  an  example  of  this  law  in  poUtical  science: 
The  people  who  are  most  devoutly  locaUzed  in  their  af- 
fections, display  a  fraternal  spirit  toward  all  other  home- 
cherishing  peoples. 

The  prophets,  representing  the  reUgious  as  opposed  to 
the  trader  instincts,  were  the  spokesmen  of  this  patriotic 
passion.  They  stood  for  Jerusalem's  independent  politi- 
cal status.  "If  ye  forsake  the  Lord  and  serve  strange 
gods,  then  he  will  do  you  hurt."  Opposed  to  the  prophets 
stood  the  rich  commercial  class,  who  were  constantly 
seeking  an  imperial  alliance  with  the  wealthy  set  in  neigh- 
boring states.  This  cohesion  of  wealth  whereby  patri- 
otism was  forgotten  in  the  lust  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  rich  in  other  countries,  finds  a  terse  expression: 
"Now  Jehosaphat  had  riches  and  honor  in  abundance  — 
and  joined  affinity  with  Ahab";  Ahab  being  the  monarch 
who  was  in  aUiance  with  the  merchant  kingdom  of  Phoe- 
nicia. Jezebel,  his  wife,  was  a  princess  of  the  kingdom 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon.  EUjah's  campaign  against  Jezebel 
reminds  one  of  the  trumpet-tongued  Demosthenes  plead- 
ing with  the  Athenians  against  a  merger  into  the  empire 
of  Macedon. 

Of  all  these  commercializers,  Solomon  was  chief.  He 
seems  to  have  organized  a  mercantile  department  of 
state;  something  Uke  the  Doges  of  Venice  or  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company.  "The  king  [Solomon]  had  at  sea 
a  navy  of  Tarshish  with  the  navy  of  Hiram  [king  of  Tyre]. 
Once  every  three  years  came  the  navy  of  Tarshish,  bring- 
ing gold  and  silver,  ivory,  apes,  and  peacocks."    The 


THE  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL  85 

"strange  women"  whom  he  married  were  women  of  the 
stranger  nations  romid  about;  commercial  alliance  was 
the  end  sought.  "King  Solomon  loved  many  strange 
women;  of  the  nations  concerning  which  the  Lord  said 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  shall  not  go  in  to  them, 
neither  shall  they  come  in  to  you.  His  heart  was  not 
perfect  with  the  Lord." 

It  seems  to  modern-minded  nationahsts  a  narrow 
policy  the  prophets  were  here  enunciating.  But  history 
has  justified  them.  "Ivory,  apes,  and  peacocks"  were 
not  Palestine's  contribution  to  mankind.  An  artistic 
conception  of  Ufe  demands  that  each  landscape  bring 
forth  after  its  kind;  emblem  forth  its  own  flora  and  fauna; 
each  landscape  a  different  blossom,  and  content  to  be 
different;  whereupon  these  differing  blossoms,  gathered 
into  a  bundle,  will  make  planet  Earth  a  nosegay  for  the 
Eternal.  Any  engrossment  by  the  Jews  in  ivory,  apes, 
and  peacocks  would  have  detracted  from  their  interest 
in  Palestinian  products.  Had  Israel  followed  Solomon's 
lead  and  transformed  itself  into  a  broker  of  ivory,  apes, 
and  peacocks,  she  would  have  been  engulfed  by  obUvion's 
hungry  maw,  as  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  engulfed;  as  were 
engulfed  the  Hittites  and  the  Philistines. 

The  Jews  made  not  that  mistaken  choice.  When,  in 
the  person  of  Solomon's  successor,  this  course  of  treason 
against  Jehovah-of-Palestine  was  fixed  as  the  permanent 
poUcy  of  state,  ten  of  the  twelve  tribes  —  counties,  as  we 
would  now  caU  them  —  seceded.  Thereafter  we  hear  no 
more  of  ivory,  apes,  and  peacocks.  But  we  hear  a  great 
deal  about  the  moral  law.  The  Covenant  had  stipulated 
that  if  the  Jews  would  keep  The  Law,  Jehovah  would 
bless  them.  With  the  coming  now  of  poUtical  disunion 
and  disaster,  terminating  in  captivity  at  Babylon,  the 
Jews  began  a  long  and  agonizing  attempt  to  get  back  into 


86  THE  FREE  CITY 

Jehovah's  good  graces,  by  keeping  The  Law.  From  that 
time  the  ethical  imperative,  which  Kant  classed  with  the 
starry  heavens  at  night  as  the  two  sublimest  objects  in 
the  miiverse,  became  Israel's  obsession.  The  Jew  learned 
to  say,  I  ought.  He  wrote  those  words,  prayed  them 
and  sang  them  and  preached  them;  with  a  vehemence 
that  made  him,  and  the  Book  wherein  he  expressed  them, 
the  ethical  teacher  of  all  succeeding  ages.  Not  that  the 
Jew  by  congenital  endowment  was  moral  above  other 
peoples.  But  in  his  case  the  moral  law  got  joined  up 
with  civic  patriotism;  and  thereby  became  heated  to  the 
flaming  point. 

"By  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  there  we  sat  down.  Yea, 
we  wept  when  we  remembered  Zion.  We  hanged  our 
harps  upon  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof.  For  there 
they  that  carried  us  away  captive  required  of  us  a  song; 
and  they  that  wasted  us  required  of  us  mirth  saying. 
Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.  How  shall  we  sing  the 
Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land?  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jeru- 
salem, let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning.  If  I  do  not 
remember  thee,  let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my 
mouth;  if  I  prefer  not  Jerusalem  above  my  chief  joy." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS 

THAT  Jesus  was  a  man  without  a  coimtry,  is  a  de- 
lusion held  by  many.  They  who  get  famihar 
with  the  historical  setting  see,  on  the  contrary, 
that  he  had  a  local  problem  on  his  hands.  His  life  co- 
incided with  the  formation  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  its 
extension  over  Palestine.  Rome  as  a  city  republic  had 
been  a  lovable  object.  As  an  empire,  o'erleaping  geo- 
graphical lines  and  welding  the  world  into  mechanical 
imiformity,  she  was  not  a  lovable  object.  The  Roman 
Empire  was  a  worldwide  amalgamation  of  capitalistic 
classes  for  the  enslavement  of  the  working  masses.  Rome 
did  not  conquer  the  various  countries;  she  annexed  them 
by  forming  an  alliance  with  the  magnate  class  in  each. 
Much  of  the  New  Testament  reflects  the  coalescence  of 
the  local  grandees  in  Palestine  with  the  Roman  System.^ 
Formerly  the  slave-holding  class  in  each  country  had 
maintained  its  own  army.  But  with  the  growth  of  slave 
rebelUousness,  begun  by  Spartacus  a  generation  earher, 
the  malcontents  in  each  country  were  outnumbering  the 
local  army.  The  Roman  Empire,  accordingly,  was  a 
consoUdation  of  these  separate  armies  into  a  miUtary 
unit,  with  an  Imperator  at  its  head;   who  was  the  Em- 

^  In  the  "  Call  of  the  Carpenter  "  I  have  painted  the  industrial 
and  economic  background  of  Jesus  with  some  fulness.  Here  I 
have  only  space  to  outline  it  sketchily. 

87 


8S  THE  FREE  CITY 

peror.  By  means  of  uniform  dress,  tactics,  weapons,  and 
organization,  the  legions  —  as  the  world  army  was  now 
called  —  were  discipUned  into  a  fighting  machine  of  high 
efficiency.  Great  roadways  were  built,  for  celerity  in 
mobihzing  the  legions.  These  causeways  were  paved 
with  flat  stones  so  as  to  make  for  swift  marching.  They 
were  carried  straight  across  the  countryside,  cutting 
through  mountains  and  carr5dng  over  valleys  on  mas- 
sive viaducts.  No  expense  was  spared  in  shortening  dis- 
tances; because  the  reach  of  the  entire  mihtary  force  into 
the  district  of  every  member  of  this  world  Corporation 
was  the  heart  of  the  System.  Let  the  magnate  class  in 
any  country  of  the  Empire  send  in  a  call  for  help,  within 
forty-eight  hours  there  would  ghtter  on  the  horizon  the 
spear  flash  of  the  gathering  legions,  bearing  down  upon 
that  spot  from  the  four  corners  of  the  globe.  Thus  the 
Roman  Empire  cemented  its  might.  Embracing  all 
countries  and  tongues  and  climates  —  a  motley  crew  — 
they  had  a  cohering  principle  which  swallowed  up  their 
diversities:   an  appetite  for  plunder. 

This  Empire  was  coiling  its  snaky  folds  about  Pales- 
tine. Jesus,  brought  up  in  a  carpenter  shop  and  himself 
a  carpenter,  finally  laid  aside  his  workingman's  apron, 
brushed  the  shavings  and  sawdust  from  his  clothing,  and 
set  out  to  announce  to  Israel  her  deliverance  from  the 
degrading  bondage  that  was  fastening  itself  upon  her 
back.    In  that  cause  he  hved  and  taught  and  died. 

His  celebrated  epigram,  "Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Csesar's,"  has  been  quite  misinterpreted; 
and  so  has  blinded  the  eyes  of  some  otherwise  keen- 
sighted  students.  Those  words  were  spoken  in  answer 
to  a  catch  question  put  to  him  by  a  band  of  informers, 
"spies  which  should  feign  themselves  just  men,  that 
they  might  take  hold  of  his  words,  that  so  they  might 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  89 

deliver  him  unto  the  power  and  authority  of  the  gov- 
ernor." They  asked  him,  "Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute 
tmto  Caesar?"  It  was  shrewdly  put.  If  he  disallowed 
the  tribute,  Rome  would  take  affront  and  despatch  a 
legion  of  troops  to  end  him  and  his  movement  without 
delay;  a  clash  that  he  avoided  as  long  as  possible:  "My 
time  is  not  yet  come."  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  approved 
of  the  tribute,  he  would  lose  his  followers,  who  were 
"waiting  for  the  consolation  of  Israel"  and  who  had 
ralUed  around  him  because  they  saw  here  one  who  "should 
dehver  Israel."    Jesus  "perceived  their  craftiness." 

In  putting  their  question,  the  spies  handed  him  a  coin. 
It  was  a  Roman  coin;  bore  the  image  of  the  Emperor. 
That  image,  to  every  patriotic  son  of  Israel,  was 
anathema.  When  Pilate  sought  to  carry  into  Jerusalem  the 
Roman  standards  which  bore  the  image  of  the  Imperator, 
the  Jews  protested  so  violently  that  he  had  to  revoke 
the  order.  When  the  Emperor  CaUgula  issued  his  de- 
cree that  his  statue  be  set  up  in  Jerusalem,  "many  ten 
thousands  of  Jews"  met  the  imperial  messenger  long 
before  he  reached  their  sacred  city,  to  head  off  the  sac- 
rilegious thing  that  was  on  its  way  to  the  defacement  of 
Jehovah's  town.  He  asked  if  they  meant  war.  "No," 
said  they;  "but  we  rather  die  than  break  our  laws.  And 
they  threw  themselves  on  their  faces  ready  to  be  slain." 
Israel  —  the  common  people  in  her  citizenry  —  was  so 
flamingly  patriotic  that  a  law  had  been  passed  by  her 
lawgivers,  forbidding  the  priests  to  accept  the  temple  tax 
in  anjrthing  but  Jewish  coins;  lest  some  coin  be  offered 
that  bore  the  image  of  an  earthly  emperor.  That  was 
why  "money-changers"  were  in  the  temple  court:  to 
change  foreign  money  into  Jewish  currency,  so  that  it 
could  be  offered  without  insult  to  Jehovah.  The  Romans, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  naturally  ask  that  their  tribute 


90  THE  FREE  CITY 

be  paid  to  them  in  Roman  money.  Therefore  the  re- 
quest of  Jesus  to  the  spies:  "Show  me  the  tribute  money." 

The  Jews  had  a  saying:  "No  people  is  conquered  until 
it  has  accepted  the  currency  of  the  invader."  So  when 
the  spies  put  their  question,  Jesus  "saith  unto  them, 
Whose  is  this  image  and  superscription?  They  say  unto 
him,  Caesar's.  Then  saith  he  unto  them,  Render  there- 
fore unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's;  and  unto 
God  the  things  that  are  God's."  His  followers  under- 
stood that  answer  to  mean:  Render  back  unto  Caesar 
the  blasphemous  coins  he  has  brought  into  our  country; 
a  proclamation  of  non-intercourse  with  the  hateful 
System,  extending  even  to  an  embargo  on  Roman  coin- 
age. His  quickness  of  repartee  thus  enabled  him  to 
dodge  one  horn  of  the  dilemma  without  impaUng  himself 
on  the  other.  "When  they  heard  these  words,  they 
marvelled;  and  left  him."  "And  they  could  not  take 
hold  of  his  words  before  the  people." 

Syria,  of  which  province  Palestine  was  a  part,  had  be- 
come Rome's  Eldorado.  Italian  adventurers,  bankrupt 
through  extravagance  at  home,  sought  eagerly  an  ap- 
pointment here,  as  a  career  of  glorious  piracy.  To  sup- 
pose that  The  Galilean  gave  a  clean  bill  of  health  to  this 
Caesarism  that  was  sucking  dry  the  veins  of  the  people, 
is  to  betray  want  of  knowledge  of  the  historical  back- 
ground. We  read:  "He  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to 
Jerusalem."  That  which  once  had  been  the  holy  city, 
was  become  the  stronghold  of  Rome's  grip  on  the  country. 
Mark  Antony,  acting  for  the  Romans,  had  appointed 
Herod  the  Great  to  be  Rome's  vassal  king.  Herod 
changed  the  name  of  Samaria  into  Sebaste,  the  Greek 
word  for  "Augustus,"  the  Roman  Emperor.  His  aping 
of  Roman  ways  went  so  far  as  to  erect  an  amphitheatre 
in  Jerusalem,  and  the  exhibition  there  every  five  years 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  91 

of  gladiatorial  combats  in  honor  of  Augustus.  Over  the 
gate  of  the  temple  itself  —  there  where  the  holy  Ark  of 
the  Covenant  resided  —  he  erected  a  golden  eagle,  the 
Roman  military  ensign,  in  token  that  the  Jerusalem  state, 
both  pohtically  and  spiritually,  was  in  bondage  to  the 
Empire.  At  this  last  unendurable  stigma  a  seething  mob 
gathered  and  tore  the  eagle  from  its  perch.  As  punish- 
ment, Herod  burned  forty  of  the  people  ahve. 

To  deliver  Jerusalem  from  this  "abomination  of  deso- 
lation standing  in  the  holy  place,"  was  the  constant  re- 
solve of  Jesus;  and  cost  him  Calvary.  The  temple  in 
Jerusalem  had  by  now  become  the  center  of  high  finance. 
The  Jewish  magnates  —  the  priestly  class  —  were  in 
partnership  with  Rome;  and  received  protection  from 
Rome  in  gouging  the  lower  classes.  To  the  high  priests 
Annas  and  Caiaphas  went  all  the  fleeces  and  skins  of  the 
animals  that  were  sacrificed;  also  the  firstfruits  of  the 
ground,  and  large  money  levies.  The  cupidity  of  these 
temple  rulers  was  notorious.  The  Jewish  populace,  long 
in  revolt  against  them,  were  powerless.  These  temple 
grandees  were  in  cahoots  with  the  Roman  System;  and 
a  Roman  garrison  in  Fort  Antonio,  close  to  the  temple 
gate,  kept  the  people  cowed  —  Fort  Antonio,  recalling 
Mark  Antony.  Lately  this  renegade  coterie  of  Jewish 
millionaires  had  achieved  a  further  refinement  of  ex- 
tortion. Within  the  temple  enclosure  they  sold  animals 
for  sacrifice,  at  exorbitant  rates.  A  worshipper,  coming 
with  an  animal  purchased  outside  in  the  open  city  mar- 
kets, would  frequently  have  his  offering  rejected,  on  the 
ground  that  the  animal  was  "ceremonially  unsound." 
The  Emperor  Tiberias  —  now  the  successor  of  Augustus 
—  had  changed  the  occupancy  of  the  Jerusalem  high 
priesthood  four  times,  until  he  found  in  Caiaphas  a  com- 
pliant instrument  and  submissive  friend  of  Rome.    In 


92  THE  FREE  CITY 

return,  the  Roman  legions  protected  Caiaphas  and  his 
fellow  plunderers  with  brutal  might. 

To  the  flaming  patriot  soul  of  Jesus  the  scene  was  un- 
endurable. Journeying  to  Jerusalem  at  a  Passover 
season  when  the  city  would  be  full  of  pilgrims,  he  entered 
the  temple  and  started  an  insurrection  by  driving  out 
the  entire  set  of  merchandisers:  "It  is  written,  My 
house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer;  but  ye  have  made 
it  a  den  of  thieves."  It  exalted  him  to  be  the  popular 
hero;  a  person  dangerous  to  the  System.  Three  days 
later,  he  was  hanging  on  the  cross;  nailed  there  by  Ro- 
man soldiers  at  the  instigation  of  the  Caiaphas  cHque. 
And  this  was  the  charge  against  him:  "He  stirreth  up 
the  people."  The  Lord's  Supper,  celebrating  the  meal 
he  ate  with  his  disciples  the  night  before  his  execution, 
is  the  sacrament  of  municipality.  Those  elements  me- 
morialize the  body  and  blood  of  the  world's  supreme 
Citizen,  who  counted  not  his  hfe  dear  unto  him  when 
the  civic  need  sounded. 

The  popularity  of  Jesus  with  the  Jewish  multitude  is 
well  attested:  "The  common  people  heard  him  gladly." 
The  shouters  of  "Crucify  him!"  in  Pilate's  judgment  hall 
were  not  the  Jewish  workingclass,  but  a  gang  of  court 
hangers-on,  and  who  had  been  coached  by  the  Caiaphas 
ring  to  make  this  demonstration.  Jesus  was  spirited 
away  to  crucifixion  at  an  early  morning  hour;  the  authori- 
ties breaking  the  code  of  criminal  procedure  that  they 
might  get  him  nailed  to  the  cross  before  the  common 
people,  heavy  with  sleep  from  the  Passover  banquet  of 
the  night  before,  could  awake  and  learn  that  their  Leader 
had  been  arrested.  A  couple  of  days  later  we  hear  the 
heart-broken  lamentation  of  his  followers:  "We  trusted 
that  it  had  been  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel." 

Jesus  was  a  scion  of  the  racial  stock.    He  took  pains, 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  93 

early  in  his  career,  to  declare  that  he  was  not  an  innova- 
tor: "Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the 
prophets."  In  organizing  his  propaganda,  he  threw  it 
expressly  into  the  mold  of  the  Jewish  state;  chose  twelve 
disciples  in  order  that,  as  he  explained,  each  of  them  might 
take  charge  of  one  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  "Son 
of  David,"  is  a  name  he  apphes  to  himself.  Paul  was 
acquainted  with  other  Hteratures.  Jesus  knows  not  any 
writings  save  those  of  his  own  people.  His  mind  was 
steeped  in  Old  Testament  lore.  His  heroes  are  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  Jacob,  Moses,  David,  Elijah,  Isaiah.  The 
first  recorded  act  of  his  life  was  his  circumcision,  "as  it 
is  written  in  the  law  of  the  Lord";  for  which  ceremony 
he  was  carried  by  his  patriotic  parents  up  to  Jerusalem. 
And  his  last  act,  before  his  death,  was  to  eat  the  Passover 
Festival  in  that  same  Jerusalem.  I  doubt  if  in  all  the 
story  of  mankind  can  be  found  another  whose  mind  was 
more  exclusively  colored  by  love  of  country  than  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  From  him  the  phrase  "Abraham's  bosom," 
has  come  to  be  a  popular  designation  for  Heaven.  Jesus 
was  the  quintessence  of  the  Old  Testament;  he  is  patriot- 
ism's elixir  and  double  distillation. 

It  was  this  locaHsm  that  was  the  secret  of  his  great- 
ness. To  be  a  cosmopolitan  is  to  be  shallow.  Only 
they  are  colossal  who  are  metropolitan.  Had  Jesus 
spread  himself  over  a  universal  geography,  he  would 
have  been  as  cheap  and  ineffective  as  the  roamer  type 
ever  is.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  temptation  to  this 
very  thing.  At  the  start-off  in  his  career  and  while  hi& 
mind  was  forming,  it  is  related  that  he  was  up  on  an  ex- 
ceeding high  mountain  and  beheld  in  vision  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world.  Satan  said  unto  him,  "All  these 
things  will  I  give  unto  thee."  But  with  an  "Apage, 
Satana!"  Jesus  turned  his  back  on  a  career  that  would 


94  THE  FREE  CITY 

have  meant  only  territorial  bigness:  "Get  thee  hence, 
Satan."  That  is  why  he  became  such  a  great  power  of 
God.  Localism  is  not  a  littleness,  it  is  a  greatness. 
Anyone  can  be  a  cosmopolitan;  the  streets  of  our  large 
cities  are  littered  with  them.  To  stay  in  one's  own  square 
of  territory  and  wrestle  with  the  concrete  problems  there 
demanding  attention  —  that's  the  acid  test. 

Jesus  was  the  most  prodigious  person  that  ever  trod 
this  planet,  because  he  was  the  most  patriotic  person  that 
ever  trod  this  planet.  Only  that  which  is  wrought 
deeply  can  endure  immortally.  And  deepness  requires 
that  the  surface  area  be  severely  circumscribed.  In 
geographical  extent  Palestine  is  microscopic.  EUjah  ran 
across  it  in  one  day.  And  from  north  to  south,  it  is  about 
half  the  distance  of  New  York  to  Albany.  A  mere  fleck 
on  the  world's  map.  But  that  fleck  was  enough  soil  for 
Jesus  to  plant  there  a  tree  of  life  whose  fertile  pollen  has 
blown  abroad  through  all  the  spaces  of  the  globe.  Man 
reckons  greatness  by  surface  measure.  God  reckons  great- 
ness by  cubic  measure;  except  the  life  of  a  people  is  as 
large  in  the  up-and-down  direction  as  it  is  in  the  hori- 
zontal direction,  that  poUtical  fabric  is  dimensionally 
distorted.  In  limiting  his  activities  to  the  local  problem, 
Jesus  became  the  messiah  of  the  healthy  gospel  of  munici- 
paUty,  to  a  mankind  cursed  with  the  mania  of  univer- 
sahty,  vague  generaUsations,  shallow  abstractions.  Let 
each  community  clean  in  front  of  its  own  door,  the  world 
will  be  clean  in  no  time. 

The  patriotic  saturation  started  whilst  his  members 
were  yet  unformed:  "Thou  Bethlehem  in  the  land  of 
Juda  art  not  the  least  among  the  princes  of  Juda;  for 
out  of  thee  shall  come  a  governor  that  shall  rule  my 
people  Israel."  His  very  name,  Jesus,  had  a  local  ap- 
plication:  "Thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus,  for  he  shall 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  95 

save  his  people  from  their  sins."  The  angel,  announcing 
to  Mary  of  the  child  she  was  carrying  under  her  heart, 
said:  "He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of 
the  Highest;  and  the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto  him  the 
throne  of  his  father  David;  and  he  shall  reign  over  the 
house  of  Jacob  forever."  And  this  was  her  reply:  "My 
soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord.  He  hath  holpen  his  servant 
Israel,  as  he  spake  to  our  fathers,  to  Abraham  and  to  his 
seed  forever."  Nor  do  we  need  to  reject  these  prenatal 
chapters  on  the  ground  that  they  are  poetry.  The  fact 
that  they  got  into  the  record  shows  what  those  who  were 
nearest  to  him,  both  in  time  and  in  spiritual  intimacy, 
thought  concerning  him;  and  explains  his  power  over  his 
contemporaries.  Moreover  the  heart  of  man  by  a  sure 
instinct  has  ratified  the  local  flavor  in  Jesus.  Paul 
changed  his  Jewish  name  for  a  Roman  name.  But  Jesus, 
never.  The  imagination  cannot  picture  him  save  in  his 
native  setting.  In  strength  he  is  the  "lion  of  the  tribe 
of  Juda."  For  beauty,  he  is  "the  rose  of  Sharon," 
or  the  lily  in  a  Palestinian  valley. 

The  center  of  his  teaching  was,  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
That  was  a  municipal  kingdom;  restoring  to  Jerusalem 
her  aforetime  status  as  a  sovereign  and  independent 
state;  a  theocracy,  with  God  in  the  rulership,  instead  of 
a  province  with  Tiberias  in  the  rulership.  The  idea  of  a 
restoration  undergirds  every  line  of  the  Gospel  story. 
This  was  the  Good  News  —  the  Gospel — -he  announced. 
To  break  the  historic  continuity  and  sunder  Jesus  from 
his  racial  roots,  is  to  render  his  doings  and  teachings  un- 
intelHgible.  The  Book  of  Matthew  was  written  ex- 
pressly to  show  that  Jesus  is  the  continuer  of  the  Old 
Testament  line.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  had  a 
similar  purpose.  They  who  break  with  history  shall 
make  no  history.     Jesus  kept  his  continuity  with  the 


96  THE  FREE  CITY 

roots  from  which  he  sprung.  When  he  wishes  to  eulogize 
Nathaniel,  it  is  with  a  "Behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in 
whom  is  no  guile."  There  is  a  note  almost  of  severity  in 
his  refusal  of  the  distractions  of  "all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  and  the  glory  of  them."  To  the  Phoenician  woman 
he  announced:  "I  am  not  sent  but  to  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel."  And  to  his  disciples:  "Go  not  into 
the  way  of  the  Gentiles,  and  into  any  city  of  the  Samari- 
tans enter  ye  not;  but  go  rather  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel." 

Austere?  Yes.  But  a  principle  of  the  first  importance 
was  involved;  and  had  to  be  laid  down  with  sharp- 
edged  clarity.  The  principle  of  municipality  is  the 
saviour  of  the  world;  delivering  us  from  the  hell  of 
mihtarism;  inaugurating  a  reign  of  fellowship  and  dis- 
tinguished handiwork.  By  stationing  himself  sohdly  on 
the  reUgion  of  Homeland,  Jesus  became  concentric  with 
the  heart  of  God  and  the  flowing  ages.  An  altruism  that 
cannot  find  employment  in  one's  own  community  but 
must  seek  out  aUen  fields,  is  a  sentimentaUty.  By  an 
expatriate,  no  great  work  was  ever  wrought. 

This  municipalism  of  his  dream  and  plannings,  is  the 
clue  to  the  democracy  of  Jesus.  Every  loyal  member  of 
the  household  of  Israel,  irrespective  of  station  or  em- 
ployment or  education  or  manners,  was  a  comrade  of  his. 
They  were  sheep  of  his  flock;  and  his  wide  arms  shep- 
herded them  all.  This  got  him  into  the  clash  with  the 
Pharisees.  Pharisee  is  a  word  meaning,  "That  which 
draws  itself  apart."  They  were  sticklers  for  social  law. 
Jesus  would  not  permit  any  schism  of  the  body  poHtic. 
Allegiance  to  the  State  took  precedence  with  him  over 
all  other  considerations.  He  associated  with  social  out- 
casts, the  "lost  sheep,"  the  "sinners."  Herein  he  is  con- 
firmed by  Aristotle,  and  by  the  finer  spirits  in  all  ages. 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  97 

Civic  loyalty  is  the  supreme  virtue.  Make  the  munici- 
pahty  supreme,  private  morals  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves. Permit  the  municipaUty  to  collapse,  no  amount 
of  ethical  precept  will  then  keep  individuals  true  and 
wholesome.  Against  those  Pharisees  he  spoke  of  the 
Wheat-and-the-Tares:  "Let  both  grow  together."  And, 
"Like  unto  a  net  that  was  cast  into  the  sea  and  gathered 
of  very  kind."  Against  their  snobbery  that  excluded 
"the  accursed  mulitude  that  knoweth  not  the  law,"  he 
taught  a  sowing  of  seed  in  wide  cathoUcity;  letting  the 
harvest  decide  which  ground  was  the  hundredfold  soil, 
and  which  the  sixtyfold. 

Towards  the  treasonable  Caiaphas-Annas  clique  Jesus 
was  especially  implacable.  The  Jewish  state  had  a 
Uberal  policy  of  naturalization;  admitting  ahens  to  the 
citizenship  upon  their  quahfying  themselves  by  a  two- 
fold rite:  circumcision  and  a  partaking  of  the  Passover 
Feast.  Jesus  threatens  the  unfaithful  rulers  of  the 
vineyard  —  these  disobedient  "sons  of  the  kingdom"  — 
with  expulsion  from  their  posts  of  leadership  and  their 
replacement  by  naturalized  "children  of  the  adoption," 
who  "shall  come  from  the  east  and  from  the  west." 

His  Parable  of  the  Illegal  Steward  discloses  in  Jesus  a 
statesmanly  recognition  of  one  of  the  cardinal  problems 
in  economic  administration.  He  was  there  wrestling 
with  that  old,  old  question,  absentee  landlordship.  In 
every  civiHzation  —  I  cannot  think  of  an  exception  — 
as  soon  as  riches  accumulate,  the  owner  has  tended  to 
leave  the  soil  and  move  into  the  city;  turning  over  his 
land  to  a  steward  who  shall  send  him  his  annual  produce. 
This  was  happening  in  Israel.  Jerusalem  was  getting 
rich  at  the  expense  of  the  outlying  countryside.  Isaiah 
complains  of  the  swallowing  up  of  the  old  farming  fami- 
lies by  the  Jerusalem  leisure  class.    We  saw  how,  because 


98  THE  FREE  CITY 

of  this,  Rome  and  Athens  fell.  Anyone  who  knows  the 
desolation  spread  in  a  rural  region  by  absentee  land- 
lordism will  understand  why  Jesus  was  relentless.  A 
farm  owned  by  an  absentee  is  a  curse  to  the  countryside. 
It  makes  no  contributions  to  the  social  life  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. It  grows  up  to  weeds,  and  plagues  all  the 
neighboring  farms  with  thistledown  and  cockle.  Man- 
aged by  an  agent,  it  gives  forth  a  cold  impersonahty  which 
always  attaches  to  property  that  is  not  humanized  by 
the  personal  presence  of  the  owner.  In  this  parable 
Jesus  represents  the  steward  taking  sides  with  the  local 
residents,  and  against  the  "certain  rich  man"  in  his 
aloofness.  The  utter  ruthlessness  of  wealth  adminis- 
tered by  agents  —  careless  of  all  but  the  yearly  per  cent 
—  puts  it  into  the  wolfish  category.  Jesus  told  the  people 
they  had  a  right  to  shear  the  wolf  ad  Hbitum. 

Jesus  was  the  Prince  of  Peace  because  he  was  the  prince 
of  patriots.  Unchallengeably  the  messianic  kingdom  he 
announced  was  Jerusalem-centered:  "Swear  not  at  all; 
neither  by  heaven,  for  it  is  God's  throne;  neither  by 
Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the  city  of  the  great  King."  In  the 
Book  of  Revelation  is  drawn  a  picture  of  the  kind  of 
society  Jesus  was  seeking  to  institute:  a  city  state,  ir- 
radiating blessedness  north  and  south  and  east  and  west. 
"That  great  city,  the  holy  Jerusalem,  descending  out  of 
heaven  from  God.  And  had  a  wall  great  and  high;  and 
had  twelve  gates;  and  names  written  thereon,  which  are 
the  names  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel." 

The  map  of  mankind  is  a  mosaic  of  communities;  re- 
deem each  community,  the  redemption  of  the  world  will 
take  care  of  itself.  Jesus  had  a  world  program.  It  was 
this:  IsraeUtes,  of  high  degree  and  of  low  degree,  must 
repent  of  their  greeds  and  feuds,  all  unfraternal  beastli- 
ness; among  each  other,  rendering  good  for  evil,  turning 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  99 

the  other  cheek.  Each  Jew  must  love  the  Father  and 
the  Fatherland  with  all  his  heart,  and  his  neighbor  as 
himself.  The  spectacle  of  a  Commune  thus  knit  in  the 
cords  of  lovely  affection,  would  be  seen  abroad.  Other 
peoples  will  "see  your  good  works,  and  glorify  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  It  would  start,  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire,  a  spirit- 
ual epidemic.  There  would  be  inaugurated  a  confed- 
eracy of  communes.  God  had  expressly  put  Palestine 
on  a  high  hill,  as  a  man  puts  a  candle  on  a  table,  in  order 
that  it  may  give  Ught  to  aU  that  are  in  the  house.  Little 
Palestine,  scarce  bigger  than  a  mustard  seed  on  the  map, 
would  wax  into  a  tree  wide  as  the  world,  so  that  the  birds 
would  come  to  lodge  in  the  branches  thereof.  Tiny;  yet 
she  would  be  as  "leaven  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal, 
till  the  whole  was  leavened."  Thereupon,  fortified  by  a 
wide  confederation,  Israel  could  proclaim  herself  in- 
dependent. But  not  before:  "Which  of  you,  intending 
to  build  a  tower,  sitteth  not  down  first  and  counteth  the 
cost,  whether  he  have  sufficient  to  finish  it?  Lest  haply, 
after  he  hath  laid  the  foundation  and  is  not  able  to  finish 
it,  all  that  behold  it  begin  to  mock  him  saying.  This  man 
began  to  build,  and  was  not  able  to  finish."  A  free 
Jerusalem  then  would  be  a  beacon  to  the  world.  A  hun- 
dred other  peoples,  now  cowed  in  subjection  to  the  Em- 
pire, would  behold  the  signal  so  luminously  flashing  from 
Zion's  top.  They  would  catch  the  contagion.  Bondage 
everywhere  would  be  broken.  The  world  would  be  re- 
deemed. 

This  Galilean  taught  that  civic  freedom  is  a  commodity 
of  price.  The  municipal  republic  is  a  dizzy  altitude.  A 
Free  City  is  set  in  the  high  places  of  the  universe.  The 
ascension  thither  is  not  for  a  half-breed  folk,  but  for 
thoroughbreds.     In  summoning  volunteers,  he  demanded 


100  THE  FREE  CITY 

all  or  nothing.  No  one  could  follow  him  by  halves. 
Self-government  is  the  supreme  treasure;  and  a  people 
must  be  willing  to  pay  for  it  the  supreme  price.  "Like 
unto  treasure  hid  in  a  field;  the  which,  when  a  man  hath 
found,  he  goeth  and  selleth  all  that  he  hath,  and  buyeth 
that  field."    A  Free  City  is  "the  pearl  of  great  price." 

Jesus  invited  the  people  to  form  a  poUtical  union  dif- 
ferent from  and  independent  of  the  Roman  System. 
There  were  those  who  advocated  a  concihatory  attitude 
toward  Rome  —  accept  the  Empire,  correct  its  more 
glaring  faults;  make  the  best  of  it;  be  practical.  He 
showed  the  fallacy  of  this.  The  Kingdom  of  God  could 
not  pour  its  explosive  wine  into  the  Herod-Caiaphas 
bottles.  This  Carpenter  from  Nazareth  was  discreet, 
gentle-spirited,  sweet-minded.  But  he  was  also  a  non- 
compromiser.  Through  the  first  three  books  of  the  New 
Testament  —  where  his  photographic  portrait  is  given  — 
we  behold  a  master  mind  proclaiming  a  revolutionary  re- 
versal in  the  world's  ongoings.  Jesus  did  not  establish 
a  church.  He  said  to  Peter,  "On  this  rock  I  wUl  found 
my  ecclesia."  Ecclesia,  as  we  saw  in  Athens,  meant  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  citizens.  In  that  theocratic  day 
a  church  separate  from  the  body  politic  was  unimaginable. 
By  "ecclesia"  Jesus  meant  The  Commune;  the  historic 
and  universal  meaning  of  the  word.  To  translate  it  into 
a  meaning  that  did  not  become  widely  current  till  the 
Third  Century,  is  not  scholarship.  He  called  people  one 
by  one  to  be  his  followers.  These  were  the  Old  Testa- 
ment "saints"  we  saw:  people  who  rallied  around  him 
for  the  purpose  of  restoring  to  Jerusalem  her  sovereignty. 
The  Jesus'  "Way"  was  not  a  church.  It  was  an  Associa- 
tion For  A  League  of  Free  Cities.  Jesus  was  a  jurist. 
He  gave  his  life  to  set  up  an  ideal  form  of  society. 

He  reminded  his  followers  that  the  Jerusalem  state 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  101 

had  the  moral  law  for  its  palladium.  "Repent  ye,  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."  As  when  Romulus 
kindled  the  fire  and  caused  the  people  to  leap  over  it,  so 
Jesus  took  over  from  John  the  rite  of  baptism,  that  those 
who  followed  this  "Way"  might  be  washed  and  purged. 
The  Ejngdom  he  was  announcing  was  "not  of  this  world"; 
that  is  to  say,  was  not  a  political  science  based  on  Roman 
Empire  principles  —  world  dominion  and  commercial 
piracy.  It  was  a  kingdom  of  fellowship.  Therefore  the 
citizens  must  love  one  another;  lend  to  one  another  and 
ask  not  in  return;  minister,  rather  than  seek  to  be  min- 
istered to. 

The  "Father"  idea,  so  dominant  in  the  Jesus'  psy- 
chology, and  his  favorite  name  for  God,  derived  from  his 
patriotism.  The  two  ideas  are  not  only  akin;  they  are 
Uterally  the  same  word.  In  Latin  the  word  for  father  is 
PATER.  In  the  German  that  becomes  vater.  In  Middle 
Low  German  it  takes  the  form,  fader;  whence  our  Eng- 
lish, "father."  A  patriot  is  one  in  whom  the  filial  instinct, 
affection  for  father  and  the  fatherland,  is  uppermost. 
Jesus,  announcing  himself  as  a  son  of  the  Father,  em- 
phasized by  that  phrase  his  Hneal  descent  from  the 
Fatherland,  and  the  messiahship  which  this  Hving  senti- 
ent Fatherland  had  anointed  him  unto.  The  State  was 
a  moral  Person;  and  Jesus  declared  himself  to  be  a  true- 
begotten  child  thereof.  In  his  speech  there  is  not  a 
hair's  breadth  of  difference  betwixt  the  divine  Father  and 
the  divine  Fatherland. 

Wonderworks  attended  the  ministry  of  Jesus.  Munic- 
ipahty  is  an  intense  communion  between  a  people  and 
their  fatherland.  In  that  mysticism  all  the  tissues  of 
Jesus  were  drenched.  And  in  like  manner  all  the  tis- 
sues of  the  people  who  flocked  around  him.  Thereby 
both  he  and  they  were  supernormally  endowed.    It  is 


102  THE  FREE  CITY 

unscientific  to  judge  the  truth  or  falsity  of  events  in  a 
psychological  situation  such  as  that,  by  the  dull  work- 
ings of  the  human  spirit  in  a  commercial  era  Uke  the 
present.  To  try  to  interpret  an  age  of  genius  by  the 
formulas  and  standards  of  our  cold  modernity,  is  to 
measure  an  electric  current  with  a  foot  rule.  Nothing  is 
clearer  than  that  the  people  expected  miracles,  and  also 
that  Jesus  frequently  satisfied  that  expectation.  It  is 
also  in  the  record  that  the  people's  posture  of  expectancy 
created  the  favoring  psychology  by  means  of  which  his 
wonderworks  were  wrought  upon  them.  Remembering 
the  stream  of  history  he  let  loose  upon  the  world  and 
which  has  flowed  from  that  day  to  this,  the  other  miracles 
recorded  of  him  become  massively  credible.  Municipal- 
ity, whereia  man's  httle  ego  is  caught  up  into  and  domi- 
nated by  the  cosmic  Self,  is  the  miracle  of  miracles. 
Which,  when  it  happens,  all  ''mighty  works"  stand 
easily  within  the  prospect  of  beHef . 

Civic  fatherhood  makes  for  hmnan  brotherhood.  Un- 
less men  love  their  country  they  will  not  love  each  other. 
To  the  extent  that  people  are  patriotic  they  will  be  demo- 
cratic. Jesus  was  aflame  with  the  passion  of  fellowship; 
and  so  he  was  more  fierce  than  any  other  person  in  his- 
tory I  know  of,  against  the  foes  of  feUowship.  A  poUti- 
cal  science  based  on  the  father  idea,  necessitates  a  poUti- 
cal  economy  based  on  the  brother  idea.  Jesus  sought  to 
estabhsh  a  commune.  Quench  this  lust  of  private  gain, 
said  he.  It  chops  the  civic  body  into  hash.  Make  the 
municipahty  your  bank  of  deposit.  There  lay  up  your 
treasure.  Take  no  thought  saying.  What  shall  we  eat 
or  what  shaU  we  drink.  Your  fatherland  knoweth  that 
ye  have  need  of  all  these  things.  Seek  ye  first  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you. 
It  was  the  poUtical  economy  that  Plato  and  Aristotle  also 


THE  PATRIOTISM  OF  JESUS  103 

had  urged:  Our  supreme  care  should  be  for  the  munici- 
paUty,  which  careth  for  us.  Jesus  sought  to  reestablish 
Israel  as  a  social  repubUc.  He  planned  a  cooperative 
democracy,  wherein  a  man  would  cherish  the  commune, 
and  the  commune  in  turn  would  give  him  liis  daily  bread. 
He  could  not  abide  a  rich  man  clothing  himself  in  purple 
and  fine  linen  whilst  another  citizen,  Lazarus,  lay  in  rags; 
nor  one  who  would  pull  down  his  barns  to  build  bigger, 
whilst  his  brothers  in  the  civic  household  crouched  in  want. 
With  almost  Uteral  accuracy  Jesus  foreshadowed  the 
clash  between  Israel  and  the  Roman  Empire.  This 
was  three  and  twenty  years  before  the  Great  Jewish  Re- 
belUon,  and  which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
by  Titus.  Had  the  officials  in  the  Jewish  state  heeded 
his  call  to  repentance  and  civic  dedication,  Jesus  would 
have  led  Israel  with  so  statesmanly  a  mind  and  so  massive 
a  spirituality  that  the  outcome  of  that  clash  could  easily 
have  been  reversed.  Israel  attempted  to  fight  the  Em- 
pire single-handed.  Jesus  expressly  cautioned  against 
this:  *'What  king,  going  to  make  war  against  another 
king,  sitteth  not  down  first  and  consulteth  whether  he  be 
able  with  ten  thousand  to  meet  him  that  cometh  against 
him  with  twenty  thousand?"  Only  a  world  confedera- 
tion could  make  head  against  a  world  empire:  the  whole 
lump  must  first  be  leavened.  But  those  who  "were  at 
ease  in  Zion"  were  too  comfortable  in  the  fat  incomes  they 
were  drawing  under  the  protection  of  the  Roman  legions. 
Poignant  his  outburst  of  sorrow;  the  elegy  of  a  breaking 
heart:  "O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the 
prophets  and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto  thee; 
how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together, 
even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wing,  and 
ye  would  not!  Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you 
desolate." 


104  THE  FREE  CITY 

"How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  to- 
gether!" This  anguish,  his  wrestle  with  that  local  prob- 
lem he  had  on  his  hands,  was  not  a  casual  or  subordinate 
feature  of  his  life's  work.  It  was  the  fire  that  burned 
continuously  at  the  heart  of  him.  "How  often!"  From 
his  boyhood  dreamings,  until  the  film  glazed  finally  over 
his  eyes  on  that  April  afternoon  atop  Golgotha's  bitter 
summit,  the  deHverance  of  his  people  Israel  was  the 
thread  that  ran  through  all  of  his  plannings.  Multi- 
tudes of  people  keep  Friday  of  each  week  as  his  death- 
day.  It  is  not  too  extravagant  a  memorial  of  him.  But 
it  should  be  connected  with  the  municipal  purpose  for 
which  he  there  paid  that  full  measure  of  devotion.  In 
giving  himself  for  a  free  city,  Jesus  incarnated  all  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.  Since  Gethsemane  and 
Golgotha,  municipahty  has  been  pierced  into  the  feet  of 
very  God,  and  engraven  on  the  palm  of  his  hands.  Cal- 
vary is  one  of  the  supreme  shrines  in  the  religion  of  citi- 
zenship. The  Patriot  who  there  was  nailed  to  death 
stands  foremost  in  the  company  of  the  immortals;  the 
civic  Christ,  freedom's  incomparable  devotee,  the  world's 
municipal  Redeemer. 


CHAPTER  Vni 

WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER 

WHY  did  civilization  start  in  the  Eastern  Hemi- 
sphere rather  than  in  the  Western?  This 
question  seems  never  to  have  got  itself  asked  by 
historians.  It  has  been  taken  for  granted  that  Europe 
should  be  primary,  and  America  secondary.  The  as- 
sumption has  been  that  the  human  species  originated  in 
the  Eastern  world-half;  and  got  to  America  by  Behring 
Straits,  the  Aleutian  chain  of  islands,  or  by  Malay  folk 
stepping  from  isle  to  isle  across  the  Pacific  Ocean  to 
America;  where  Columbus  discovered  them.  But  there 
is  no  evidence  of  that  Asia-to-America  route.  For  all 
we  know,  it  may  have  been  in  the  other  direction,  from 
America  to  Asia.  Civilization,  and  therefore  the  his- 
torians, originated  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  Those 
historians,  writing  up  the  history  of  the  human  race  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  own  ethnical  folklore,  traced  the 
origin  of  the  human  family  back  to  their  own  racial  and 
geographical  roots.  Thus  Adam  and  Eve  and  an  oriental 
Garden  of  Eden  have  become  soaked  into  our  mental 
fibres;  so  that  we  believe  by  a  dull  instinct  that  man 
started  over  there;  which  would  explain  why  civiUzation 
also  started  there. 

But  even  on  the  showing  of  those  historians,  man  had 
existed  in  these  Americas  through  a  long  enough  duration 
prior  to  the  coming  of  Columbus  to  have  developed  a 

105 


106  THE  FREE  CITY 

civilization  equal  to  that  of  the  Europe- Asia  world.  The 
Inca  Empire  in  Peru  was  contemporary  with  Romulus 
at  Rome,  Homer  in  Greece,  David  at  Jerusalem.  Cy- 
clopean remains  in  Peru,  and  foreign  to  the  genius  of  the 
Inca  architecture,  announce  a  powerful  people  existing 
there  before  the  Inca  dynasty;  pushing  the  date  back 
another  thousand  years.  Yucatan  and  the  Mound 
Builders  of  Ohio,  will  occur  to  the  reader.  Recent  dis- 
coveries in  a  gravel  bank  by  the  Delaware  south  of  Trenton 
have  unearthed  instruments  made  by  human  hands,  in  a 
geological  period  antedating  the  glacial  epoch.  There- 
fore Paleohthic  man  certainly  existed  in  America;  dat- 
ing human  life  on  this  continent  back  probably  20,000 
years  B.C.  Then  why  did  the  Stone  Man  in  Europe 
develop  finally  into  Platos  and  Parthenons,  whilst  the 
same  Stone  Man  in  America  did  not  develop? 

Climate?  But  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  has  no  climate 
that  the  Western  Hemisphere  cannot  duplicate.  Edibles? 
America  is  surprising  the  world  for  the  variety  and  rich- 
ness of  her  tillable  lands.  During  twenty  thousand 
years  man  existed  here,  amid  a  climate  as  favorable,  and 
girt  with  a  material  supply  more  favorable,  than  what 
Europe  or  Asia  can  show.  No  spot  elsewhere  on  the 
globe  where  soil  and  climate  combine  more  perfectly  for 
human  uses  than  California.  Then  why  is  America  now 
put  to  the  humiUation  of  importing  her  civiUzation  from 
Europe?  Every  time  an  American  law  court  sits,  it 
proceeds  according  to  Roman  law.  What  political  science 
we  possess,  is  based  on  traditions  inherited  from  Athens; 
and  all  of  our  art  schools  draw  from  her  as  their  well- 
spring.  Every  Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Jewish  church 
in  America  officially  harks  back  to  Palestine;  so  much  so 
that  the  scenery  of  that  Asiatic  region  has  become  in- 
stitutionalized for  devotional  purposes:  the  River  Jordan, 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER      107 

Sinai,  Mount  Zion  —  names  that  are  uttered  with  the 
same  awe  as  is  evoked  by  the  divine  Name  itself.  Why? 
How  came  it  that  the  heavens  of  the  Oriental  hemisphere 
are  starred  with  luminaries  that  even  yet  o'ersparkle  our 
night  with  their  radiance;  while  this  our  Western  world, 
during  a  human  existence  at  least  as  long  —  and  maybe, 
longer  —  has  produced  no  stars  of  magnitude? 

The  reason  why  civilization  originated  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean basin  rather  than  around  Lake  Ontario  or  Southern 
California  or  the  Missouri  River,  is  because  the  geography 
of  the  Mediterranean  made  city  states  obUgatory.  Whilst 
the  geography  of  North  and  South  America  made  a 
nomad  existence  possible. 

Brute  man  —  man  in  his  animal  unregenerate  form  — 
will  be  a  roamer  whenever  he  can.  That  is  the  path  of 
least  resistance.  To  wander,  unfastened  unattached,  is 
the  animal  instinct  universally.  It  is  the  loafer  trait, 
so  massively  in  all  of  us,  human  and  subhuman.  Beast 
nor  fowl  nor  fish  ever  sink  deep  roots  or  Uve  intensively. 
They  get  their  subsistence  by  skimming  over  the  surface 
of  Nature;  never  by  cultivating  one  spot  of  Nature. 
Where  they  find  some  product  ready  grown,  they  eat  it. 
When  that  is  exhausted  they  find  some  other  windfall, 
or  perish.  They  are  consumers  only;  never  producers. 
Depth  is  another  word  for  localism.  Both  quad- 
rupeds and  commercialists  laugh  immoderately  at  the 
idea  of  locaUsm.  Both  of  these  types  covet  only  a  sur- 
face existence.  In  order  to  grow  deep,  one  must  needs 
remain  in  the  same  locality.  Animals  have  a  horror  of 
localism;  wild  animals,  I  mean;  domesticated  animals 
have  taken  on  a  touch  of  civiUzation,  that  is  to  say, 
localism.  Animals,  and  men  in  their  wild  state,  covet  a 
form  of  life  that  shall  be  broad  and  shallow. 

Man,  inheritor  of  immemorial  generations  of  animal 


108  THE  FREE  CITY 

ancestry,  has  got  this  virus  of  nomadism  terribly  in  his 
blood.  He  is  a  natural-born  gypsy.  He  likes  to  reap 
where  he  has  not  sown,  and  gather  where  he  has  not 
strewed.  He  will  not  settle  down  unless  he  has  to.  In 
America  he  didn't  have  to.  Wild  tracts  of  level  land  in- 
vited to  a  gratification  of  the  wander-lust.  Here  the 
central  plain  permits  travel  in  a  straight  line  for  a  thou- 
sand miles,  without  bumping  against  a  wall.  The  sea- 
board too  is  wide.  Rivers  in  America,  as  a  consequence, 
are  usually  gentle-mannered;  which  fact  also  favored 
frequent  moving  of  one's  habitat,  by  navigation.  Fur- 
thermore the  fertihty  of  the  soil  here  produced  so  lux- 
uriantly that  primitive  man  was  not  compelled  to  dig 
and  plant.  So  he  remained  unchangeably  the  roamer  he 
was  when  he  emerged  from  the  four-footed  estate.  And  a 
roamer  still  was  he  when  Columbus  found  him;  hving  in 
wigwams  and  teepees  which  could  be  pulled  down  and 
dragged  by  a  horse  to  the  next  camping  place;  the  ex- 
istence of  a  fisher  or  a  hunter. 

That  is  to  say,  Man  in  America  was  a  savage;  or,  at 
best,  a  barbarian.  Nor  has  contact  with  Europe  even 
yet  produced  a  truly  civil  type  of  existence.  Four 
centuries  of  life  here  in  much-travelling  America  has  al- 
ready begun  to  deciviUze  the  Caucasians  who  migrated 
hither;  so  that  the  modern  American,  returning  now  to 
staid  old  Europe  as  a  globe-trotter  and  rushing  through 
her  aisles  and  corridors,  is  infecting  the  peoples  there  with 
the  same  mania  for  gadding.  We  Americans  present  to 
view  the  most  restless  people  of  all  the  kindreds  of  man- 
kind. The  men  we  hold  in  honor  and  load  with  mil- 
lionairic  opulence,  are  those  who  put  wheels  under  us, 
whereby  we  may  rush  from  one  place  where  we  are  bored, 
to  another  place  where  we  will  be  equally  bored.  To  the 
destruction  of  character  and  of  creative  power.     Neigh- 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER       109 

borhood  is  the  stay  and  guard  of  decency.  Travel  is  a 
means  of  escape  from  the  Ten  Commandments.  Va- 
grants, be  they  in  rags,  be  they  in  tags,  or  be  they  in 
velvet  gowns,  are  not  long  in  getting  to  be  vagabonds. 

Mediterranean  man  in  the  Stone  Age  inherited  from 
his  animal  ancestry  as  much  of  the  nomad  instinct  as  did 
the  Stone  Man  in  America.  But  the  geography  there 
put  a  prompt  and  severe  veto  to  his  roaming  propensities. 
There  we  find  a  narrow  strip  of  land  surrounding  the  sea, 
and  with  high  mountains  almost  immediately  behind. 
On  practically  all  sides,  the  coast  is  a  shelf  but  a  few 
miles  in  width,  backed  by  a  mountain  wall;  or,  as  on  the 
Sahara  side,  by  a  forbidding  desert.  Moreover,  the 
Mediterranean  shore  is  not  only  narrow;  but  this  narrow 
strip  is  itself  intersected  at  frequent  intervals  by  tongues 
of  the  sea.  These  tongues  of  water,  in  early  times  when 
navigation  was  perilous,  served  as  transverse  barriers, 
preventing  migratory  movements  sideways;  as  the 
mountain  or  desert  prevented  migratory  movements  in 
the  backward  direction. 

By  these  natural  pockets,  Mediterranean  man  was  un- 
consciously wooed  by  Nature  into  a  form  of  life  other  than 
nomadic;  namely,  small  collectivities,  each  settling  in 
its  little  niche  and  there  abiding.  The  coast  where  Rome 
pitched  her  site  is  an  example.  From  the  Alban  moun- 
tains to  the  sea  is  five  and  twenty  miles.  So  that  Rome, 
midway  between,  had  a  twelve  mile  leeway.  And  the 
overflooding  of  the  Tiber  isolated  her  people  on  their 
seven  hills  for  weeks  at  a  time.  In  North  America,  by 
contrast,  the  mountains  bordering  the  Atlantic  are  a 
hundred  miles  back;  with  a  thousand-mile  stretch  north 
and  south  as  an  invitation  to  the  rambler  instinct. 

Greece  is  even  more  finely  cut  up  than  Italy.  She  is 
more  indented  by  tongues  of  the  sea  and  more  parti- 


no  THE  FREE  CITY 

tioned  by  mountain  walls,  than  probably  any  other  spot 
of  equal  size  on  the  globe.  And  Greece  developed  the 
city  state  more  perfectly  than  any  other  people.  The 
Greek  archipelago,  Ukewise,  is  a  checkerboard  of  islands; 
and  each  of  them  was  the  seat  of  a  sovereign  community. 
Palestine  is  another  natural  pocket.  There,  a  group  of 
valleys  give  down  eastwardly  into  the  Jordan.  Thus, 
hemmed  in  on  the  west  by  the  Lebanon  ridge,  and  on  the 
east  by  the  Jordan  and  the  desert,  the  IsraeUtes  snuggled 
closely.  In  good  sooth,  "snuggle"  is  quite  the  word  to 
describe  her  life  during  her  formative  period,  and  which 
made  her  the  coherent  people  she  became.  The  city 
state  of  Memphis  was  another  —  and  most  important  — 
center  of  ancient  civilization.  This  Egypt  commune  oc- 
cupied a  narrow  strip  on  each  side  of  the  Nile;  with 
inhospitable  deserts  round  about,  to  keep  them  from 
roaming. 

In  the  other  spots  where  civilization  developed,  the 
same  geographical  feature  —  natural  pockets  —  is  to  be 
noticed.  In  the  Mesopotamia  valley,  girdUng  deserts 
made  the  wall.  In  India,  the  communes  were  located 
each  ia  some  cleared  area,  with  the  danger-infested  jungle 
as  the  barrier  round  about.  Japan  is  a  small  mountainous 
country,  with  indentations  from  the  sea;  Hke  Greece. 
China  apparently  got  her  arts  and  culture  from  this 
island  neighbor. 

The  municipal  state  was  the  originator  of  ci\41ization; 
and  can  be  the  only  guarantee  of  a  continuing  civihza- 
tion.  The  principle  of  municipaUty  is  a  cord  woven  of 
two  strands:  collectivity  and  continuity.  Nomads  want 
both  of  these  qualities.  Roaming  wide  spaces,  nomads 
do  not  touch  elbows  constantly  with  the  same  individuals; 
therefore  they  grow  no  sense  of  solidarity  —  all  of  those 
countless  graces  that  are  bred  when  neighbor  rubs  against 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER       111 

neighbor,  that  Feeling  of  the  Other  Fellow,  to  which  we 
give  the  name  justice  manners  amity.  Also,  nomads 
possess  no  graveyards.  A  graveyard  means  an  attitude 
of  reverence  towards  the  generations  that  have  gone  be- 
fore. It  is  a  constant  reminder  that  we  were  preceded 
by  othei-s,  and  in  turn  will  be  followed  by  others.  The 
word  patriot,  as  we  saw,  comes  from  the  word  "father." 
In  the  Bible,  reUgion  was  in  large  part  a  ritual  for  keeping 
alive  in  the  people  a  philosophy  of  history;  a  sense  of  the 
pit  from  which  they  were  hewed  and  the  root  from  which 
they  were  sprung.  "The  God  of  your  fathers,"  —  that 
is  what  gave  religion  to  the  world.  Said  Jesus:  "Other 
men  have  labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into  their  labors." 
This  veneration  of  the  past  is  an  outstanding  character- 
istic of  city  commonwealths;  and  is  a  prime  cause  of 
civilization.  It  made  Rome  the  giver  to  mankind  of 
that  marvelous  fabric  known  as  Roman  Law.  Rome  as 
a  municipal  repubhc  developed  the  "father"  idea  as 
perhaps  her  chief  product.  Her  entire  conception  of  the 
state  centered  around  it.  She  called  the  state,  "the 
patria,"  "the  place  where  the  fathers  Uved  and  are 
buried."  She  venerated  the  "Conscript  Fathers";  called 
those  who  were  —  originally  —  the  public-spirited  class  in 
the  population,  "The  Patricians."  From  this  there  was 
begotten  in  Roman  psychology  a  respect  for  the  What- 
has-been.  She  styled  herself,  literally,  a  terra  patrum: 
a  commonwealth  where  fatherhood  was  the  sacredly  es- 
tablished principle  of  State.  Accordingly,  whenever  a 
way  of  doing  things  had  become  estabHshed,  the  people 
clung  to  it  with  a  religious  fidelity:  the  Fathers  did  so 
and  so;  ergo,  the  children  must  follow  it  with  scrupulous 
fideUty.  In  this  way  formulas  and  procedures  became 
sharpened  into  definiteness.  Other  peoples,  where  the 
Fathers  were  not  in  so  awful  a  veneration,  oscillated  from 


112  THE  FREE  CITY 

one  manner  of  doing  a  thing  into  another  manner  of  doing 
it.  Not  so,  the  Romans.  Precedence  —  that  which  the 
Fathers  have  done  —  was  here  consecrated  with  solemn 
awe.  In  this  way  Roman  customs  concerning  property 
and  the  rights  of  persons  came  to  stand  out  finally  with  a 
fixedness  and  precision  quite  lacking  in  the  codes  of  other 
peoples.  So  Roman  Law  survived,  whilst  the  wobbly 
processes  in  other  countries  became  forgotten.  Lawyers 
to  this  day  are  proverbially  conser\'ative.  Their  mental 
inheritance  from  Rome  breeds  in  them  an  instinct  for 
precedent,  and  a  distaste  for  innovation. 

The  vagrant  is  never  a  civilization  builder,  because  he 
is  not  a  city  builder.  The  word  civilization  is  from  the 
Latin  civitas;  (which,  carried  over  into  our  tongue,  be- 
comes "city.")  A  city  is  a  settlement.  Civilization  is 
the  product  of  a  settled  life.  All  that  we  comprehend 
under  that  scopeful  word  —  law,  manners,  art,  Uterature, 
science,  material  monuments,  mutual  help  —  cannot  be 
the  improvisation  of  a  moment.  They  are  plants  of  a 
slow  growth,  to  the  maturing  of  which,  generations  of 
generations  must  contribute  each  its  quota.  In  Norse 
fancy,  Igdrasil,  Tree  of  Being,  enshrines  an  irrefutable 
truth.  Civilization  is  a  tree,  whose  roots  go  deep  in 
order  that  its  branches  may  reach  high.  Each  genera- 
tion can  build  but  one  ring  in  the  trunk  of  that  oak;  add- 
ing itself  to  the  layers  that  have  been  built  in  already, 
and  upon  which  they  that  come  after  must  build. 

The  nomad  thinks  and  Uves  in  terms  of  a  single  genera- 
tion. He  chops  the  life  of  mankind  into  disconnected 
particles.  With  him,  no  Igdrasil  adding  its  slow  bulk 
ring  upon  ring.  His  plant  must  germinate,  take  root, 
spring  up,  and  come  into  foUage,  all  in  the  threescore  and 
ten  of  one  man's  life.  Which  kind  of  a  plant,  as  the 
secular  durations  of  the  world  count  values,  is  but  a 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER      113 

mushroom  growth,  a  fungus.  Fungus,  seeing  that  it 
shoots  forth  in  a  day,  shall  in  a  day  perish.  In  the  Red 
Skin  folk  of  North  America,  or  the  fisher  folk  of  the 
prahies  by  the  Amazon,  inventive  minds  arose,  brains 
that  struck  out  excellent  suggestions  for  progress.  Had 
those  beginnings  been  followed  up,  they  would  have  led 
to  a  civiHzation  full  as  rich  as  that  of  Attica  or  Latium. 
But  on  his  death  there  was  no  fihal-minded  person  to 
take  up  the  invention  where  his  predecessor  left  off. 
With  no  regard  for  antiquity,  they  gave  no  heed  to  pos- 
terity; erected  no  schools,  built  no  monumental  splendors 
to  decorate  the  world  in  the  day  of  their  children's  chil- 
dren: "as  we  neglect  the  fathers,  so  we  in  turn  will  be 
neglected  by  our  children.  Eat,  drink  and  be  merry; 
for  tomorrow  we  will  be  forgotten." 

That  word  "fungus"  accurately  describes  all  nomad 
life,  be  it  the  nomadism  of  savagery,  or  the  gadding  mania 
in  modernity.  Fungi  are  parasites.  They  have  no 
power  to  take  up  sustenance  directly  from  the  earth; 
they  feed  on  other  organisms.  Therefore  the  comparison 
is  exact.  Nomadism  means,  "having  no  home."  A  more 
just  description  would  be,  "having  no  workshop."  Home 
is  not  where  we  Hve,  but  where  we  make  our  living.  If 
productivity  be  wanting,  'tis  not  a  home  but  a  boarding 
house.  The  reason  why  people  are  nomads,  is  not  be- 
cause they  have  an  aversion  to  a  settled  dwellingplace, 
but  because  they  have  an  aversion  to  work.  A  home- 
Ufe  makes  for  a  work-Ufe.  Contrariwise,  a  work-Ufe 
makes  for  a  home-hfe.  So  long  as  people  are  happily  at 
work,  they  stay  home.  There  is  no  delight  to  be  com- 
pared with  expressing  the  soul  day  by  day  in  material 
form.  People  who  produce  the  most,  journey  the  least. 
The  great  travel  ages  in  history  have  been  non-productive 
ages.     Eras   of  art   creation   have  always   been  home- 


114  THE  FREE  CITY 

staying  eras.  It  seems  as  though  the  hands  and  feet  are 
competitors  for  the  energy  that  is  in  us.  When  the  hands 
are  busy,  the  feet  keep  still.  It  is  when  the  hands  go 
hstlessly  to  a  task,  the  feet  get  the  travel  itch. 

Work  is  an  acquired  trait.  Because  of  our  animal 
ancestry,  not  work  but  loafing  is  the  instinctive  bent  in 
all  of  us.  Wild  animals  don't  work.  That  is  why  they 
are  animals.  The  ascent  of  species  is  the  development  of 
a  capacity  for  work.  The  monkey  is  higher  than  the 
zebra  in  the  scale  of  being,  because  the  monkey  has 
fingers  with  which  to  work  up  the  raw  material  it  finds, 
into  forms  more  suitable  for  its  food  and  habitation.  A 
zebra,  finding  a  heap  of  beans,  half  of  them  good  and  half 
decayed,  must  eat  all  or  none.  I  had  a  monkey  once. 
One  day  I  gave  him  a  green  pod  of  peas.  He  not  only  set 
to  work,  in  good  housewifely  fashion,  to  shell  the  peas 
from  the  pod;  but  he  took  one  of  the  roxmd  peas  and  with 
his  fingernails  proceeded  to  skin  off  the  peel  that  was  its 
integument,  a  membrane  so  thin  that  I  never  knew  there- 
tofore of  its  existence.  With  the  viand  thus  prepared  to 
his  hking,  he  ate  it.  Darwin  states  the  formula  of  evo- 
lution as  "adaptation  to  environment."  A  more  exact 
phrasing,  I  submit,  would  be,  Capacity  to  labor.  Adap- 
tation to  environment  is  the  result  of  hard  and  continuous 
effort.  Talent  for  work  is  the  key  to  the  evolutionary 
ascent. 

The  nomad  is  a  low  form  of  human  life,  because  it 
shows  a  low  grade  of  productivity.  Hunters  and  fishers 
and  trappers  grow  not  the  objects  they  use.  Civilized 
man,  in  contrast,  does  not  depend  upon  the  wild  chamois 
but  raises  a  flock  of  sheep.  He  breeds  textile  and  fur 
animals  for  his  clothing;  Hke  the  skunk  and  fox  farms 
we  behold,  and  ostrich  farms  for  plumage.  This  quaUty 
in  man  —  capacity  to  toil  —  was  bred  in  him  by  life  in 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER       115 

municipal  states.  Work  that  is  greatly  productive  is 
characterized  by  collectivity  and  continuity,  the  two 
strands  of  which  municipahty  is  woven. 

Vast  was  the  stretch  of  time  requisite  to  domesticate 
the  animals  we  use,  and  on  which  so  much  of  our  civiliza- 
tion depends.  To  take  that  wild  chamois  and  breed  him 
into  the  pasture-lot  sheep  of  our  farmsteads  —  five 
hundred  years  of  continuous  selective  breeding  were  a 
short  time  for  that  achievement;  the  son  taking  the  flock 
reverently  from  the  fathers,  making  a  small  increment  to 
the  task  of  domestication,  and  then  handing  the  half-bred 
flock  on  to  the  children.  The  breeding  of  our  horse 
from  the  wild  mustang  and  the  zebra;  of  the  cow  from 
the  buffalo;  of  the  pig  from  the  wild  boar;  of  the  dog 
from  the  woK  —  not  centuries  but  millenniums  were  re- 
quired. Likewise  to  domesticate  the  plants,  upon  which 
our  Uving  so  largely  depends.  The  potato  in  its  wild 
form  is  a  tuber  the  size  of  a  filbert  nut.  I  beUeve  that 
some  scientists,  as  a  means  of  calculating  the  age  of  the 
Inca  civiHzation,  have  been  trying  to  educate  that  wild 
tuber.  And  in  a  hundred  years  they  have  not  yet  evolved 
anything  appreciably  larger  than  the  original  filbert- 
thing.  Civilized  corn  is  of  so  ancient  an  ancestry  that 
we  do  not  even  know  from  what  wild  plant  it  originated. 
These  tasks  required  for  their  accomplishing  thousands 
of  years.  The  Ufe  of  a  man  is  but  threescore  and  ten. 
A  community,  however,  can  have  a  fife  measured  by 
centuries.  When  the  conmiunity  idea,  therefore,  had 
been  hit  upon,  civiHzation  commenced. 

TTiis  continuity  stretching  over  centuries,  required 
also  collectivity.  Imagine  a  task  of  a  thousand-yeared 
duration,  entrusted  to  the  slender  thread  of  one  family. 
At  any  time  disease  or  accident  might  sunder  that  line, 
and    intercept    the    process.    Without    man,    domestic 


116  THE  FREE  CITY 

animals  and  plants  cannot  survive.  In  order  to  provide 
continuity,  with  no  gap  in  it,  a  collectivity  of  families 
had  .to  be.  Many  tasks,  furthermore,  are  beyond  the 
competency  of  individual  toil;  as  in  a  ''Raising,"  to  Uft 
the  heavy  framework  of  a  house. 

But  the  collectivity  must  not  be  too  big.  Aristotle 
and  Jesus  were  right:  To  hold  a  people  together  through 
generations  of  generations,  the  fellowship  must  be  of  a 
vigorous  quaUty.  As  the  area  of  the  human  group  en- 
larges, the  warmth  of  fellowship  lessens.  The  further 
they  are  stretched,  the  more  the  threads  of  intimacy  at- 
tenuate. The  attenuation  gets  to  be  so  slender  at  last 
that  the  thread  snaps;  the  individual  no  longer  feels 
himseK  identified  in  sympathy  and  interest  with  the 
others.  Altercation  then  opens  a  gulf.  Bickerings  arise; 
class  feuds;  warfare.    And  that  civilization-line  is  cut. 

Further,  it  must  not  only  be  a  community,  and  a  small 
community;  but  it  must  be  a  sovereign  community. 
The  small  repubUc  is  always  a  work  state;  a  commune  of 
producers  banding  themselves  against  exploitation.  No- 
mads round  about  seek  to  pilfer  the  product  of  these 
toilers,  either  by  overt  incursions,  or  by  spohation  dis- 
guised under  commercial  formulas.  Sovereignty  is  the 
hedge  wherewith  the  community  girdles  itself,  to  defend 
that  garden-plot  of  civiUzation  from  being  overrun  and 
trampled  by  hmnan  tigers.  Like  early  Rome,  defending 
herself  against  commercially-minded  Carthage.  Like 
Athens,  against  the  hordes  of  Darius  and  Xerxes.  Like 
Israel,  against  Egypt  and  Chaldea  and  Caesarism.  With- 
out that  hedge,  the  fruits  of  the  garden  could  never  have 
come  to  maturity. 

CiviUzation,  thus,  is  the  product  of  a  small  collectivity, 
abiding  continuously  in  one  spot  through  hundreds  of 
years,  and  sovereign.    Which  is  another  way  to  describe 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER      117 

a  city  republic.  The  one  spot  in  America  that  most 
closely  resembles  the  broken  topography  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, is  Peru.  That  cordillera  of  the  Andes  Range  is 
made  up  of  "knots";  plateaux  formed  by  the  crossing 
of  two  ranges,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  mountain 
walls  or  dizzy  ravines.  In  those  natural  nests,  people 
grouped  themselves.  Cut  off  by  profound  gorges  or 
snow-capped  sierras  from  the  peoples  around  them,  they 
developed  into  communities.  Each  was  a  httle  republic, 
owning  their  lands  and  hves  in  common.  The  Inca 
civilization  was  the  result.  The  wild  potato  of  a  filbert's 
size  became  in  their  hands  a  tubercle  practically  as  we 
have  it  to-day.  The  wild  plant  became  the  maize,  whence 
we  have  our  golden  corn.  The  mountain  goat  was  do- 
mesticated into  their  llama,  and  its  wool  was  woven  into 
tapestries  of  strange  beauty. 

Why  then  did  not  the  Incas  go  on  to  the  cultural 
heights  reached  by  Athens  and  her  sister  communes? 
Those  Peruvians  made  the  mistake  that  modernity  is 
making:  they  went  from  municipality  over  into  nation- 
aUty;  they  got  the  mania  of  bigness.  The  natural 
barriers  were  not  sufficiently  insuperable  to  keep  the 
communities  distinct.  As  soon  as  they  began  to  get 
civilized,  they  drove  highways  through  the  mountain 
walls,  threw  bridges  across  the  deep  defiles.  Then  they 
committed  the  heresy  of  heresies:  instead  of  federating, 
the  communities  fused.  They  yielded  up  their  local 
autonomy,  unto  a  centraUzed  power.  With  the  big  state 
came  a  weakening  of  the  tie  conjoining  man  to  man. 
The  people  fell  into  discords.  Warrings  broke  out. 
Commotions  followed  commotions.  Until  the  Man  on 
Horseback  appeared.  A  ruling  dynasty  established  itself, 
supported  by  a  military  dictatorship.  The  Incas  be- 
came what  is  probably  the  most  perfect  instance  of 


118  THE  FREE  CITY 

socialistic  nationalism  ever  known.  "Hie  huge  state  was 
a  centralized  and  highly  benevolent  despotism.  There 
was  great  pomp  in  Cuzco,  the  capital;  and  dull  drudgery 
in  the  provinces.  The  eye  of  the  central  power,  reports 
Clement  Markham,  was  ever  upon  the  people.  The 
never-faiUng  brain  provided  for  all  their  wants;  gathered 
in  the  tribute;  selected  their  cliildren  for  the  various 
occupations. 

And  what  was  the  net  product  of  this  mammoth  and 
highly  centraUzed  nation?  The  Peruvians  developed 
much  in  the  way  of  materiahty,  and  naught  in  the  realm 
of  personaUty.  Nationality  makes  a  people  rich.  Mu- 
nicipaHty  makes  a  people  great.  The  Incas,  when  they 
gave  up  their  Uttle  repubUcs  and  fused  into  a  nation, 
chose  material  values  at  the  expense  of  personal  values. 
Their  hydraulic  engineering  was  bold  and  skilful.  They 
had  a  level  road  sixteen  hundred  miles  in  length,  with 
galleries  cut  league  after  league  through  solid  rock. 
Ravines  of  hideous  depth  were  filled  with  bridges  of  solid 
masonry.  It  was  a  land  of  gold,  hterally.  Pizarro, 
Amalgro,  and  their  fellow  Spaniards  found  that  the  re- 
ports which  had  come  to  them  on  this  score  were  not  ex- 
aggerated. In  one  of  the  temples,  all  of  the  implements, 
even  to  the  spades  and  rakes  in  the  garden,  were  of  gold. 
When  Pizarro,  having  captured  their  chief,  demanded  a 
ransom,  one  of  the  parcels  of  treasure  sent  to  him  con- 
sisted of  eleven  thousand  llamas  laden  with  gold. 

But  where  in  her  annals  will  you  find  the  name  of  a 
great-minded  Inca?  Of  them  we  read,  "The  people  were 
nourished  and  well  cared  for,  and  they  multiplied  ex- 
ceedingly." Nor  did  the  gold  they  heaped  together 
enrich  mankind  permanently.  It  brought  upon  them  the 
Spaniards,  and  tragic  ferocities.  Pizarro  and  Amalgro 
themselves  were  not  lastingly  enriched.    They  wasted 


WHY  AMERICA  IS  THE  LOITERER        119 

their  winnings  in  wars  with  each  other.  And  both  of 
them  died  so  poor  that  they  were  "buried  of  mere  char- 
ity." The  gold  that  this  Inca  treasury  poured  into  the 
lap  of  Spain  was  the  latter's  undoing.  From  that  time 
dates  the  commencement  of  Spanish  decay. 

CiviUzation  is  the  flower,  of  which  a  Free  City  is  the 
stem  and  root.  A  millennial  plant,  it  requires  a  thousand 
years  of  consecutive  growth  to  come  to  efflorescence. 
Man  in  America  has  not  yet  acquired  that  fixedness  of 
rootage.  Through  twenty  thousand  years,  America  has 
been  the  loiterer.  At  this  moment,  smothered  up  in 
superfluity,  we  are  still  the  loiterer.  Cardboard  churches, 
plaster  ornaments,  imitation  stone,  iron  towers  that 
pretend  to  be  granite;  commercial  privateering;  poli- 
tician government;  a  people  drunk  with  materiahty; 
speed;  money  to  spend  and  boots  to  kollop  —  who  in 
after  ages  will  think  of  us?  What  are  we  building  that 
the  quicksand  years  will  not  swallow?  Whatsoever 
values  we  possess  are  an  importation  from  Europe  and 
Asia.  There,  httle  repubUcs  fastened  themselves  in  one 
spot;  toilers  with  investiture  of  indefeasible  majesty, 
and  producing  works  that  gHster  with  an  immortal  re- 
nown. Of  us,  the  record:  "The  people  were  nourished 
and  well  cared  for,  and  they  multipUed  exceedingly." 


CHAPTER   IX 

TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK 

SO  long  as  municipality  was  their  political  form,  the 
Mediterranean  coastal  reaches  continued  to  be  the 
home  of  a  civilized  and  creative  order.  When  this 
was  supplanted  by  a  pohtical  establishment  based  on  the 
idea  of  bigness,  that  civihzation  passed  away.  The 
Roman  Empire,  Uke  all  huge  poUtical  structures,  spelt 
decadence. 

Because  of  their  inheritance  from  the  early  and  mu- 
nicipal era,  the  Roman  emperors  possessed  no  small 
amount  of  political  genius.  Roman  law,  Greek  art, 
GaUlean  ethics,  gave  to  the  Empire  a  store  of  vitaUty 
which  kept  her  going  through  more  than  four  hundred 
years.  In  the  flush  and  force  of  that  invigoration,  the 
emperors  wrought  ofttimes  in  statesmanly  fashion.  Al- 
exander had  founded  his  empire  on  the  Greek  model: 
small  units,  each  with  a  city  for  its  center.  The  Roman 
emperors  did  the  same.  They  would  grant  to  a  city  the 
civiTAs;  whereby  the  town  became  a  httle  Rome  in  that 
locaUty,  and  whose  people  enjoyed  the  Roman  citizen- 
ship. Over  such,  the  emperors  maintained  a  personal 
surveillance.  Their  edicts  for  the  welfare  of  these  city- 
centers  grew  at  last  into  a  considerable  body  of  munic- 
ipal law. 

But  these  devices  could  not  permanently  avail.  The 
Empire  was  sick  with  a  deep-seated  sickness;   paUiatives 

120 


TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK  121 

could  but  relieve  temporarily.  This  malady  was,  the  de- 
cay of  pubhc-mindedness  in  the  people.  The  provincial 
cities  had  become  puppets  worked  by  the  central  and  far 
away  power.  The  only  rights  of  self-government  left 
to  the  communities  were  on  trumpery  matters.  The  real 
government  —  matters  concerning  the  importances  of 
life  —  had  been  wrested  from  them,  taken  over  by  the 
centrahzed  machine  on  the  Tiber.  Perceiving  that  local 
patriotism  was  declining,  the  emperors  tried  to  induce  in 
the  people  a  pride  in  the  Empire  as  a  whole.  But  human 
beings  cannot  identify  themselves  enthusiastically  with 
a  governmental  aggregate  whose  area  reaches  beyond  the 
confines  of  their  daily  affairs.  The  decay  of  pubUc  con- 
sciousness is  the  outstanding  fact  of  these  five  downward- 
sHpping  centuries. 

Rome  herself  was  no  longer  a  source  of  virtue.  There 
at  the  heart,  the  spirit  of  citizenship  was  also  dead,  or 
dying.  The  influx  of  tribute  was  a  leprosy  disseminating 
its  white  pus  through  all  the  tissues  of  society.  They 
who  had  once  been  citizens  of  the  Cato  breed,  hardy  ab- 
stemious folk  resolute  for  freedom,  were  now  a  rabble, 
accepting  bread  from  the  Emperor,  and  a  dole  of  tickets 
to  amphitheatrical  bestiaUties.  Those  folk  in  Rome 
thought  to  be  free  at  the  expense  of  bondage  in  the  prov- 
inces. They  found  that  the  chain  wherewith  they 
shackled  these,  tangled  its  other  end  about  their  own 
ankles;  a  clamp  self-locking,  as  though  the  iron  links 
had  by  some  Egyptian  magic  transformed  into  serpents 
and  now  were  twining  their  coils  about  the  Laocoon. 
Souls,  once  of  the  Gracchi  stamp,  deteriorated  to  a 
PANEM  ET  ciRCENSES  level.  They  proved  that  the  descent 
into  hell  is  easy.  "None  cared  what  way  he  gained,  so 
gain  were  his,"  recorded  Juvenal.  And  he  hved  early, 
when  the  descensus  Averno  was  at  its  commencement. 


122  THE  FREE  CITY 

Rome  as  a  municipal  republic  had  been  an  ascending 
society.  Rome  as  the  center  of  a  far-encircUng  imperial- 
ism, was  a  descending  society. 

The  obliteration  of  local  autonomy  went  on  progres- 
sively. Augustus  had  affected  to  be  a  bourgeois  emperor. 
He  left  much  power  in  the  hands  of  the  outlying  provinces. 
But  one  thing  he  did  not  leave  in  their  hands  —  sover- 
eignty. So  they  lacked  the  one  thing  needful.  These 
local  centers  were  no  longer  world  capitals,  invested  with 
awful  majesty,  free  of  dictation  from  any  source  except 
the  Source  Within.  They  were  satellites  to  the  central 
sun  on  the  Tiber.  Therefore,  in  the  influence  they 
wielded  on  the  imaginations  of  their  people,  there  was  all 
the  difference  between  sunlight  and  moonlight.  Munic- 
ipal freedom  is  hke  the  solar  emanations:  possessed  of 
mysterious  power,  because  acting  directly.  But  when 
reflected,  as  from  the  moon's  orb,  those  rays  lose  their 
occult  chemistry;   become  pale  and  lifeless. 

The  faUing  away  of  civic  spirit  in  the  provinces  gave 
the  emperors  no  end  of  trouble.  When  each  community 
had  been  a  sovereign  state,  the  people  had  insisted  on  the 
privilege  of  participation  in  the  government;  had  fought 
battles  to  maintain  that  right.  Now  that  Free  Cities 
were  no  more,  the  spirit  of  citizenship  atrophied.  More 
and  more,  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  had  to  busy  them- 
selves with  distant  affairs,  which  once  the  local  citizens 
had  administered.  After  Augustus,  the  centralization 
proceeded  with  constant  pace.  The  state  became  con- 
centrated in  a  princeps  on  his  Palatine  throne.  There 
are  historians  who  criticise  the  emperors  for  thus  grasp- 
ing more  and  more  power;  as  there  are  contemporary 
critics  rebuking  the  president  of  the  United  States  of 
America  for  his  extension  of  White  House  authority. 
In   neither   case  is   the   executive  at  fault.    Both   the 


TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK  123 

Roman  Empire  and  the  United  States  bulk  as  colossal 
states;  therefore,  as  participation  by  the  individual  in 
the  affairs  of  government  decUnes,  the  central  power  is 
compelled  to  take  into  its  own  hands  the  neglected 
threads. 

To  handle  the  increase  of  administrative  matters,  an 
officialdom  gathered  about  the  Emperor;  a  civil  service 
constantly  more  bureaucratic,  constantly  more  profes- 
sional. In  Hadrian's  day  the  step  was  formally  taken: 
the  civil  service  was  organized  into  a  machine  —  an 
enormous  array  of  bureaucrats  taking  orders  from  the 
government  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber;  radiating  over 
the  Empire  like  strands  in  the  web  of  a  spider. 

Citizenship  means,  the  absorption  of  the  ego  into  the 
communal  group,  whereby  his  private  inclinations  are 
subjugated.  That  self-obliteration  in  the  public  weal  is 
the  seed  of  civilization.  When  the  small  republics  of  the 
Mediterranean  world  gave  way  to  the  giant  state,  this 
absorption  of  the  ego  in  public  consciousness  could  no 
longer  take  place.  The  state  was  become  a  far-extending 
leviathan;  whose  palpable  embodiment  was  in  a  distant 
city  of  the  Italian  peninsula,  invisible  and  therefore  im- 
personal. Such  a  state  sent  no  throb  to  the  heart- 
strings, awoke  in  the  people  no  passion  of  self-abnegation. 
Accordingly  they  slumped  back  into  their  primeval  self- 
ishness. Each  one  followed  the  devices  and  desires  of 
his  own  heart.  Because  there  was  no  longer  any  thought 
of  the  social  union,  there  was  no  ardency  of  virtue.  Aris- 
totle is  never  tired  of  showing  that  moraUty  is  pubUc- 
spiritedness:  the  municipality,  beset  by  rivals  and  by 
foes,  needs  a  strong  coherent  society  within  her  borders; 
ergo,  I  as  an  individual,  one  of  that  component  mass, 
must  not  squander  my  health  or  my  strength  or  my 
goods;  I  must  hve  honestly  and  amicably  and  truthfully 


124  THE  FREE  CITY 

and  serviceably.  When  the  body  politic  ia  no  longer 
visibly  present,  but  the  government  is  become  a  mechan- 
istic bureaucracy  in  a  far-away  invisible  spot,  that  sum- 
mons to  the  ethical  life  has  lost  its  resounding  and  vibrant 
note. 

The  vexations  that  plagued  the  emperors  in  their  at- 
tempts to  administer  the  huge  aggregate  by  means  of  a 
Civil  Service,  were  under  several  categories.  But  all  of 
these  were  variants  of  the  one  curse,  the  decHne  of  social- 
mindedness.  There  was  no  longer  in  the  people  a  sense 
of  society.  Population  decreased  —  portent  of  the  ego- 
istic sensuahties  that  were  gaining  the  upper  hand.  The 
army  arose  in  a  spirit  of  class-assertiveness;  overrode  all 
restraints  of  law;  assassinated  emperors  at  will.  Land 
went  out  of  cultivation,  so  that  large  tracts  became  waste. 
When  pride  of  locaUty  perishes,  agriculture  is  touched 
with  a  mortal  sickness;  is  caught  in  the  drive  of  the 
population  away  from  the  rural  regions  toward  the  urban 
centers  and  a  life  of  leisure.  Thus  the  temper  of  the  time 
was  fashioned  by  an  idle  class.  Labor  became  a  degra- 
dation. People  flocked  to  the  commercial  seats,  where 
they  could  get  a  livehhood  without  contact  with  loam  and 
cattle. 

We  see  frequent  attempts  by  the  Princeps  and  his 
ofl&cialdom  to  overhaul  the  finances  of  the  provincial 
cities.  This  interference  discouraged  the  citizens  from 
interesting  themselves  in  local  affairs  that  had  become 
but  the  administrative  tool  of  the  Palatine  bureaucracy. 
As  the  citizens  let  go,  affairs  muddled  into  a  still  sorrier 
mess;  which  called  for  additional  interference  from  the 
center.  That  interference  destroyed  still  more  com- 
pletely in  the  citizens  their  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
state.  The  Empire  was  caught  in  a  vicious  circle  which 
locked  itself  ever  more  tightly:    Private  negligence  com- 


TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK  125 

pelled  bureaucratic  intervention;  bureaucratic  inter- 
vention augmented  the  private  negligence. 

We  behold  the  emperors  appointing  curatores: 
"Commissioners  For  the  Investigation  of  the  Condition  of 
Free  Cities."  As  these  officials  became  corrupt,  other 
officials  were  appointed  to  watch  the  first.  Soon  watchers 
had  to  be  appointed  to  watch  the  watchers.  Eagerly  the 
emperors  sought  to  stir  up  the  people  in  each  community 
to  care  for  the  pubUc  business;  in  much  the  same  method 
as  is  being  witnessed  in  America  —  hortatory  suppUca- 
tions:  a  "Revival  of  Citizenship."  It  was  in  vain.  Ex- 
hortations failing,  decrees  conmianded  the  town  senates 
—  the  CURIA — ^^to  do  their  work:  inspect  the  pubhc 
buildings,  provide  games,  oversee  the  postal  and  trans- 
port service,  collect  the  taxes,  work  the  vacant  lands. 
Penalties  were  exacted  upon  recreant  town  senates,  and 
upon  the  members  thereof  who  sought  to  dodge  their 
obligations  to  society.  Finally  membership  in  a  town 
senate  became  so  irksome  that  we  see  the  emperors 
sentencing  to  membership  in  those  curia  as  punishment, 
prisoners  who  had  been  convicted  of  some  crime  or 
misdemeanor. 

The  Roman  Empire  was  unable  to  fuse  the  populational 
ingredients;  when  the  melting  pot  is  too  large,  it  will  not 
come  to  the  melting  point.  The  barbarians  from  the 
North  were  not  the  destroyers  of  that  Empire.  It  broke 
asunder  of  its  own  weight.  A  thousand-miled  nation 
from  East  to  West,  it  had  no  coherency.  Over  so  large 
an  area,  identity  of  interest  was  impossible.  Class  be- 
came arrayed  against  class;  section  against  section. 
Perceiving  their  mistake,  the  emperors  tried  at  last  a 
remedy:  they  divided  the  Empire  into  halves,  with  a 
capital  for  the  western  end,  and  another  capital  for  the 
eastern  end.    But  this  compromise  still  left  the  state  five 


126  THE  FREE  CITY 

hundred  miles  long.  So  that,  in  the  thousand  daily 
procedures  of  the  people,  private  interest  continued  to 
take  precedence  over  pubUc  interest.  Each  Uttle  act 
of  private-mindedness  was  in  itself  of  small  consequence. 
But  when  the  selfishness  of  one  individual  is  multiplied 
by  that  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  million  individuals,  it 
makes  a  disintegrating  force  against  which  no  emperor, 
no  civil  service,  no  poUce  force,  can  cope.  In  every 
bosom  was  generated  a  nest  of  serpents  and  cockatrices 
that  refused  to  be  charmed.  The  social  union  was  de- 
composed. In  the  year  476,  when  the  barbarians  en- 
camped around  the  city  of  Rome  and  vanquished  her, 
they  were  but  expressing  in  outward  fact  what  had  for 
long  been  the  inward  condition:  the  Roman  state  had 
ceased  to  be;  that  society  had  disintegrated  into  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miUion  individualistic  atoms. 

Ostragoth,  Hun,  and  Visigoth  were  uncivilized,  because 
their  wanderings  through  the  forests  of  central  Europe 
and  the  steppes  of  the  East  had  wrought  in  them  no 
consecutive  and  collective  existence;  that  is  to  say,  no 
mimicipal  psychology.  This  uncivihzed  North  now  over- 
flooded  the  uncivihzed  South.  "If  the  whole  ocean," 
says  a  contemporary  witness  of  the  cyclonic  event,  "if 
the  whole  ocean  had  swept  over  this  country,  it  could  not 
have  made  more  horrible  ravages.  Our  stock,  our  fruits, 
our  harvests  have  been  taken  from  us.  Villages  situated 
upon  the  highest  mountains,  even  cities  surrounded  by 
rivers,  have  not  been  able  to  protect  their  inhabitants 
against  the  fury  of  these  barbarians."  Rome  was  sacked. 
Athens  and  the  isles  of  Greece  were  harried.  Jerusalem 
long  before  had  been  crushed  under  the  imperial  foot  of 
Titus.  Where  the  songs  of  Zion  had  been  heard,  now 
resounded  the  speech  of  roaming  tribes  from  the  deserts 
of  the  Arabah.    Where  the  flexible  Greek  and  the  terse 


TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK  127 

Latin  had  communicated  graciousness  to  man's  life,  the 
gutturals  of  the  barbaroi  were  heard.  The  sun  of  munic- 
ipality had  set.    Night  settled  down  thickly. 

The  barbarians  made  effort  to  continue  some  of  the 
cities.  Wallia  of  the  Visigoths  took  up  his  headquarters 
at  Toulouse.  Theodoric,  at  Ravenna.  Clovis,  at  Paris. 
But  the  endeavor  was  short-Uved.  In  these  nomadic 
hordes  there  was  no  instinct  of  municipaUty.  After  these 
chieftains  were  dead,  their  followers  left  the  cities.  They 
made  the  domain  instead  of  the  city  their  seat.  Thus 
they  could  give  themselves  to  himting  and  hawking,  and 
the  migrant  life  generally. 

Schools  passed  out  of  existence.  Libraries  were 
tumbled;  books  no  longer  circulated.  Seeds  and  fruit 
trees  and  Uve  stock,  that  had  been  improved  through 
consecutive  generations  of  cultivators,  were  destroyed  or 
permitted  to  perish.  Husbandry  pined  away.  There 
was  certainly  not  much  arable,  and  but  little  even  of 
pasture  farming.  Large  tracts  that  once  had  been  fertile, 
grew  up  to  wildwood.  Roads  through  the  forest  tangle 
disappeared.  The  Romans  had  been  skilful  carriage 
makers.  These  roamer  tribes  had  no  use  for  vehicles. 
They  preferred  horseback.  So  roads  gave  place  to  bridle 
paths. 

Some  of  the  towns  —  Lyons,  Marseilles,  Milan,  Genoa, 
Florence,  Pisa  —  continued  as  names.  But  they  had  no 
municipal  spirit.  Wide  areas  in  these  towns  were  de- 
serted, so  that  flocks  were  pastured  in  the  midst  of  once 
populous  cities.  The  architecture  of  the  classic  world 
was  used  as  a  quarry  whence  to  pillage  stone  for  the 
hovels  of  the  people.  In  only  two  places  have  we  very 
much  of  the  antique  world  still  standing.  One  of  these 
is  Syria  east  of  the  Jordan,  in  a  narrow  strip  edging  the 
desert;  Roman  structures  there  are  visible,  and  in  abund- 


128  THE  FREE  CITY 

ance;  because  the  Bedouin  natives  in  that  region  lived  in 
tents,  and  had  no  need  for  carved  stone.  The  other  spot 
was  preserved  to  us  also  by  accident :  Pompeii  and  Her- 
culaneum.  We  can  never  be  too  grateful  to  Vesuvius  for 
the  protecting  layer  of  ashes  and  lava  wherewith  it 
blanketed  those  two  cities  and  preserved  them  intact 
to  our  day.  Say  not,  the  elements  are  destructive.  For 
destroying  power  there  is  nothing  in  the  imiverse  to  equal 
man,  when  his  egoistic  impulses  are  unbridled  by  civiU- 
zation's  sweet  restraints.  Those  two  spots  accidentally 
saved  to  us,  hint  the  splendor  that  covered  all  of  the 
Mediterranean  world  in  the  classic  era,  that  Luminous 
Age  we  have  been  reviewing:  landscapes  radiant  with 
carved  work;  towns  and  countrysides  inwrought  with 
marble  shafts;  streets  gorgeous  in  azure  and  gold. 

The  Dark  Ages  that  now  followed  must  not  be  under- 
stood as  a  lifeless  era.  There  was  life  enough.  But  it 
was  egoistic  Life.  Now  that  communal  sovereignty  was 
no  more,  each  man  claimed  that  he  was  sovereign;  he 
did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes;  which  meant, 
he  indulged  his  caprice,  obeyed  no  law,  followed  the  im- 
pulse of  the  moment.  We  read,  in  one  of  the  edicts  by 
which  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  —  as  the  faint  survival  of 
the  ancient  Empire  called  itself  —  sought  to  control  the 
turbulence:  "It  is  enjoined  upon  all  the  tenants  that  none 
of  them  attack  any  others,  in  word  or  deed,  with  clubs 
or  arrows  or  knives."  And  again:  "It  is  ordained  that 
all  the  women  must  restrain  their  tongues  from  slander- 
ing." And  this:  "Whatever  son  shall  drive  his  father 
from  his  castle  with  fire  and  sword,  or  shall  attack,  wound, 
or  imprison  his  father,  shall  be  regarded  as  dishonored 
and  an  outlaw."  A  Simon  Stylites,  self-worshipped  on 
his  pillar  top,  images  the  time. 

Life  became  a  business  of  naked  physical  force.    Each 


TWILIGHT  AND  THE  DARK  129 

man  was  arrayed  against  his  fellow.  Scrimmage  was  the 
normal  condition.  Each  family  was  its  own  policeman. 
Unshielded  against  the  assaults  of  brigandage,  the  lowly 
attached  themselves  in  a  servile  relationship  to  some  lord 
who  was  powerful  enough  to  protect  them;  whence  the 
feudal  status  of  seigneur  and  serf.  A  wide-wasting  ocean 
of  feuds  and  scuffling  and  pillage. 

City-worship,  we  saw,  brings  rehgion  home  to  every- 
day Ufe;  whereby  the  doings  of  each  moment  are  chas- 
tened; and  a  moraUzed  society  is  the  result.  Now,  re- 
ligion and  Hfe  were  divorced  —  the  flying  apart  of  the 
elements  of  society,  when  the  state  is  big.  A  knight 
would  amass  a  fortune  in  open  brigandage,  burning,  slay- 
ing, robbing;  and  then  would  devote  the  proceeds  to  the 
church.  No  small  part  of  the  rehgious  estates  of  that 
period  obtained  in  this  way  their  foimdations.  A  noble- 
man and  his  family  were  punctiUous  to  attend  mass  in 
the  oratory  of  the  castle;  whilst  in  the  dungeon  under- 
neath, a  serf  or  poUtical  prisoner  would  be  perishing  for 
want  of  bread  and  water.  The  people  would  go  from 
prayers  to  witness  cold-bloodedly  an  execution  by  rack 
or  wheel  or  burning  at  the  stake.  A  brigand,  awaiting  in 
ambush  a  traveller  coming  up  the  valley,  would  tell  his 
beads  in  the  interim.  Charlemagne  commanded:  "Let 
no  priest  presume  to  store  provisions  or  hay  in  the  church." 
And  further:  "Let  the  priests,  according  to  the  apostle's 
advice,  withdraw  themselves  from  revelling  and  drunken- 
ness. For  some  of  them  are  wont  to  sit  up  till  midnight 
or  later,  boozing  with  their  neighbors;  and  then  these 
men,  who  ought  to  be  of  a  rehgious  or  holy  deportment, 
return  to  their  churches  drunken." 

Of  the  Celts  we  have  a  description  by  Posidonius: 
"They  eat  in  a  slovenly  manner;  and  seize  with  their 
hands,  hke  Uons  with  their  claws,  whole  quarters  of  meat; 


130  THE  FREE  CITY 

which  they  tear  in  pieces  with  their  teeth.  If  they  find 
a  tough  morsel  they  cut  it  with  a  small  knife  which  they 
always  carry  in  a  sheaf  at  their  side."  Forks  were  not 
known  till  very  late.  A  traveller  in  Italy  records  his 
pleasure  at  discovering  this  utensil  in  use;  it  seems  to 
him  a  better  way  than  for  everyone  to  dip  his  fingers  in 
the  common  dish,  "seeing  that  all  men's  fingers  are  not 
alike  clean."  We  have  preserved  a  recipe  that  throws 
Ught  on  the  cookery  of  the  time:  "Take  a  pig,  draw  him, 
smite  ofif  his  head,  cut  him  in  IV.  quarters,  boil  him;  take 
him  up  and  let  cool;  smite  him  in  pieces." 

This  then  was  the  Dark  Ages.  A  welter  of  fightings, 
and  of  uncoordinated  whimsical  energies.  A  decay  of 
intellectual  life  and  the  mechanic  arts.  No  centers  where 
fellowship  could  rear  her  beautiful  growths.  The  decay 
of  municipaUty  was  the  decay  also  of  a  feeling  for  Nature. 
The  pitiful  attempts  at  art  in  this  period  possess  but  a 
documentary  value;  like  the  reUgion  of  the  day,  a  formal- 
ism; no  naturalness;  a  stilted  grotesquerie.  Five  squaUd 
centuries. 

Citizenship  is  the  Ught  of  the  world.  That  shining 
orb  now  was  set.  So  night  ensued;  a  night  long  and 
black  and  turbulent. 


CHAPTER  X 

INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES 

THE  rise  of  Free  Cities,  and  accordingly  the  end  of 
the  Dark  Ages,  dates  shortly  after  the  year  1000. 
In  part  the  arrival  of  that  round  millennial  figure 
started  the  new  era.  The  mind  of  man,  groping  in  the 
night  that  was  upon  Europe,  hailed  the  year  1000  as  a 
perhaps  divinely  intentioned  turning  point.  The  real 
causation,  however,  was  something  far  more  concrete 
and  massive.  The  resurrection  of  municipal  states  in 
Europe  traced  its  roots  to  the  Orient. 

Throughout  the  Dark  Ages  a  vestige  of  civilization  had 
continued,  in  that  there  was  kept  aUve  in  the  people  the 
vision  of  at  least  one  free  city  —  Jerusalem.  Man  can- 
not get  along  without  splendors.  When  he  is  starved  of 
them  in  his  daily  smroundings,  the  fantasy-forming 
faculty  builds  an  illusional  world  whither  his  spirit  may 
take  up  its  abode.  Such  had  been  to  Europeans  the 
dream-Jerusalem  during  those  five  dismal  centuries:  a 
realm  of  the  Blessed,  rich  with  all  resplendence;  gates 
of  pearl,  streets  of  massy  gold,  walls  of  sapphire  and  ruby 
and  jasper  —  the  "Zion"  of  the  Book  of  Revelation. 
As  is  ever  the  case,  the  sumptuousness  of  that  visionary- 
world  was  in  direct  ratio  to  the  dinginess  of  the  actual 
world  they  were  living  in.  The  mind  of  man  has  seldom 
pictured  a  more  radiant  paradise,  than  during  those  five 
hundred  years  when  Europe  was  a  gloomy  roaring  hell. 

131 


132  THE  FREE  CITY 

But  this  Jerusalem,  though  etherealized,  was  also  a 
geographical  fact.  Europe  in  that  age  had  a  more  vivid 
awareness  of  Palestine  than  have  moderns.  The  Saracen, 
inhabiting  that  land,  had  become  the  topic  of  topics  — 
much  what  the  labor  movement  is  to-day.  The  spread 
of  the  Moslem  up  through  Spain  into  France,  and  from 
the  other  direction  through  Asia  Minor  towards  the 
Balkan  gateway  into  Europe,  was  an  omnipresent  dread. 

The  westward  horn  of  that  advancing  crescent  was  no 
longer  menacing;  Martel  the  Hammerer  had  terminated 
that  prong  of  aggression.  But  the  horn  at  the  other  end 
was  portentous,  threatening.  The  Saracens  had  captured 
Jerusalem,  and  were  edging  up  ever  more  close  to  the 
Dardanelles. 

Pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem  by  pious  Christians,  which 
had  hitherto  been  a  frequent  custom,  were  now  inter- 
rupted by  the  hated  Mohammedans.  When  therefore 
Peter  the  Hermit  began  to  preach,  "Jerusalem  must  be 
delivered,"  he  obtained  a  Uvely  response.  The  Latin 
hymn,  urbs  zion  aurea,  by  Bernard  of  Cluny,  is  char- 
acteristic of  that  day;  is  a  historical  document  in  the  re- 
ligion of  citizenship: 

Jerusalem  the  golden,  with  milk  and  honey  hlest! 
Beneath     thy    contemplation,    sink    heart    and     voice 

oppressed. 
I  know  not,  Oh  I  know  not,  what  joys  await  ws  there; 
What  radiancy  of  glory,  what  bliss  beyond  compare. 

To  rescue  the  "sweet  and  blessed  country  that  eager 
hearts  expect,"  the  Crusades  began. 

On  their  way  to  dehver  Jerusalem,  the  Crusaders  be- 
held Constantinople.  This  was  the  only  city  in  Europe 
that  had  escaped  the  barbarian  deluge;  thanks  to  the 
fact  that  the  Danube  flows  east  and  west.    The  rivers  of 


INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACIES  133 

western  Europe  flow  north  and  south,  facilitating  the 
downward  incursion  of  the  barbaric  tribes.  But  the 
Danube  permitted  a  stand  to  be  taken  against  them. 
This  barrier  saved  Constantinople,  whilst  Rome  and 
Athens  succumbed.  Thus  through  a  thousand  years, 
Constantinople  had  been  the  refuge  of  the  arts  of  the 
classic  world.  Against  the  Saracen,  in  the  other  direc- 
tion, she  had  long  been  the  watcher  at  the  gate  of 
Europe,  Because  she  kept  that  watch  with  faithfulness 
much  of  the  civiUzation  we  possess  to-day  is  due. 

For  most  of  the  Crusaders,  Constantinople  was  their 
first  sight  of  a  city.  And  it  was  a  spectacle  eminently 
calculated  to  impress  them.  Here  schools  were  flourish- 
ing; the  academies  of  Rome  and  the  porticoes  of  Greece, 
that  had  hither  fled  for  shelter.  Constantinople  was  the 
renowned  city  of  the  world;  famed  for  her  tapestry 
weavings,  her  ceramic  art,  philosophy,  forensic  oratory, 
and  imposing  ceremonial  of  state.  As  the  Crusaders 
looked  upon  this  town,  home  of  a  so  glistering  and  deco- 
rated life,  a  new  mental  imiverse  swam  within  their  ken. 
It  caused  a  somersault  in  their  point  of  view;  reversed 
their  standards,  their  judgment  of  themselves  and  the 
world.  They  contrasted  the  orderliness  and  security  of 
life  here,  with  their  chaotic  countrysides,  torn  by  broils 
and  alarms.  They  contrasted  the  distinguished  manners 
of  these  townsmen  with  their  own  crudities  of  speech 
and  dress  and  bearing.  They  contrasted  the  amphi- 
theatre, the  baths,  the  colonnades,  with  the  gray  dreari- 
ness of  their  home  country.  They  contrasted  the  houses 
here,  of  splendid  tile  and  masonry,  gardened  and  win- 
dowed, with  their  own  turf  huts  thatched  with  branches, 
a  hole  in  the  roof  for  smoke-vent. 

Passing  over  into  Asia  Minor,  they  saw  Smyrna,  Ephe- 
sus,  Ancre,  Antioch,  Gaza;  and  the  civiUzing  work  in  the 


134  THE  FREE  CITY 

marrow  of  their  spinal  system  was  continued.  How 
dingy  seemed  their  own  Europe,  when  measured  against 
the  vivacity  and  splendors  of  life  here  in  organized  com- 
munities! The  stabihty  of  this  communal  existence  im- 
pressed them.  Here  were  towns  that  boasted  twenty 
centuries  of  uninterrupted  being;  so  that  each  generation 
as  it  came  into  the  world  was  caught  up  by  and  en- 
wrapped in  a  body  of  civil  tradition  whereby  a  refining 
fire  was  made  to  play  upon  the  dross  in  man's  composi- 
tion. The  city,  they  perceived,  was  an  organization  of 
resources  for  instruction  and  humane  intercourse;  an 
institution  that  was  lacking  in  the  hfe  of  Europe.  Loath 
though  they  were,  these  Westerners  had  to  concede  that 
the  despised  Saracen  infidel  was  a  more  civiUzed  being 
than  they  were. 

I  mean  not  to  color  the  picture  too  highly.  Contrasted 
with  the  standards  of  modem  material  comfort,  those 
Moslem  cities  would  shine  with  but  a  sombre  light.  But 
in  the  art  of  manners,  the  Saracen  of  that  day  was  prob- 
ably more  advanced  than  the  average  modem.  The 
Mussulman  culture  was  a  city  culture.  Mohammed  had 
had  a  Mecca  and  a  Medina  in  his  spiritual  career.  Also 
the  Old  Testament  stateliness  was  in  his  blood.  There 
was  in  the  Moslem  faith  no  hostiHty  to  cities.  They 
spared  the  towns  they  took,  and  continued  the  civil 
traditions.  The  architecture  of  the  Alhambra  attests 
that  they  had  creative  power.  There  were  Moslem  uni- 
versities at  Bagdad,  Babylon,  and  Alexandria.  Their 
Cordova  in  Spain  was  a  center  of  intellectuaUty  and  bril- 
liant culture,  whilst  Christian  Europe  was  tossing  in  the 
hag-ridden  years  of  nightmare.  Nothing  is  more  clear 
than  the  impression  of  polish  and  high  deportment  which 
the  Moslems  made  on  the  Crusader.  To  the  Moslem,  in 
turn,  these  Westerners  appeared  vulgarians,  raw,  unen- 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES  135 

kindled;  given  to  garlic  and  other  indelicate  viands; 
heavy  witted,  lumpish  in  spirit.  The  beef-bellied, 
beef-brained  Crusaders  for  the  first  time  saw  themselves 
as  others  saw  them.  They  compared  this  garnished 
civiHzation  with  their  own  land  where  the  people  ate  off 
the  bottom  of  a  barrel  for  a  table;  for  a  seat  had  a  bundle 
of  straw  —  serfs  in  mud-walled  hutches,  cowering  at  the 
nod  of  their  seigneur.  The  contrast  cut  deep  welts  in 
their  consciousness. 

Then  at  last,  on  the  vision  of  the  Crusaders,  lifted  the 
city  of  cities  —  the  Zion  of  their  dreams.  Artists  have 
tried  to  picture  the  psychology  of  these  pilgrim  hosts  as 
they  caught  sight  for  the  first  time  of  Jerusalem;  have 
portrayed  their  dfevoutness  of  expression,  kneehng,  mail- 
clad,  and  surrounded  by  the  panoply  of  war.  Canvas  can 
present  but  a  feeble  image  of  the  reahty.  When  that 
city  burst  into  view,  it  was  as  when  the  Delectable  Moun- 
tains and  the  Gate  Beautiful  loomed  upon  the  sight  of 
the  travellers  in  Pilgrim's  Progress.  They  had  not  been 
dulled,  as  we  modems  are,  by  too  much  and  useless  travel. 
Each  new  city  was  to  them  a  fresh  wonder.  But  here  was 
the  primate  of  cities;  cradle  of  their  reUgion,  where  very 
God  had  dwelt  and  been  crucified  and  entombed;  Home- 
land of  their  souls,  to  attain  which  they  had  braved  a 
thousand  dangers,  endured  a  thousand  hells  of  privation. 

From  that  time  the  city  form  of  existence,  with  its  rich 
ornament  and  stately  decorums,  became  the  goal  of 
striving  in  every  devout  pilgrim  breast.  The  Crusaders 
returned  home,  missionaries  of  a  civil  and  urbane  organi- 
zation of  life.  Now  began  to  be  fulfilled  that  forecast 
announced  by  Jesus:  Jerusalem  became  the  mother  of 
Free  Cities.  It  was  verily  the  Son  of  Man  coming  again 
in  power  and  great  glory.  Like  a  river  lost  underground, 
that  Palestinian  stream  of  influence  had  flowed  for  a 


136  THE  FREE  CITY 

thousand  years,  out  of  the  sight  of  history  and  men's 
eyes.  Now  it  reemerged  in  the  form  of  a  hundred 
municipal  republics,  dotting  Italy  and  France  and  Ger- 
many and  the  Netherlands  and  England,  So  Jerusalem 
in  the  days  of  her  exile  proved  more  fecundative  than 
during  her  Judaic  period. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  one  of  the  first  places 
where  the  Free  City  revived  was  Rome.  Her  ancient 
fame  and  grandeur  had  never  utterly  failed.  Charle- 
magne had  had  a  chair  of  silver,  chased  to  represent 
the  city  of  Rome;  and  another  chair  representing  Con- 
stantinople. The  barbarians  had  wrought  havoc  upon 
Tiber's  Town;  but  her  animate  stones  kept  a  something 
of  tradition  aUve.  And  now,  Arnold  of  Brescia  started 
her  civic  resurrection.  A  monk,  and  of  rapt  austere 
fibre,  his  heart  cried  aloud  at  the  corruption  in  the  papal 
court.  There  was  at  the  time  a  struggle  in  Rome  be- 
tween the  local  nobility  and  the  pojje.  Arnold  entered 
the  fight  on  the  side  of  the  nobihty.  Soon  he  became  a 
prominent  figure  in  the  controversy. 

There  is  a  dispute  among  historians  as  to  whether 
Arnold  was  a  religious  devotee  or  a  political  reformer. 
The  debate  is  its  own  answer.  He  was  both.  He  sought 
to  restore  the  city  state  of  Rome.  The  return  to  a  munic- 
ipal commonwealth  is  a  return  to  life's  midmost  center, 
where  secularity  and  sanctity  are  reunited.  Arnold 
wished  to  woo  those  antitjrpes  into  harmony.  He  planned 
to  rebuild  Rome  as  a  Christian  Republic:  the  oldtime 
blessed  marriage  of  pohtics  and  rehgion.  He  dethroned 
the  pope.  Under  his  leadership  much  of  the  city  of  Rome 
was  built  up  out  of  its  ruins.  Those  old  words  of  magic, 
SENATus  POPULUSQUE  ROMANUS,  became  once  more  a 
living  phrase.  A  municipal  era  had  recommenced.  To 
be  sure,  Arnold  did  not  last  long.    The  pope  rallied  from 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES  137 

his  discomfiture,  and  got  the  emperor  to  aid  him.  Said 
this  Frederick:  "It  is  not  for  the  people  to  give  laws  to 
the  prince,  but  to  obey  his  commands."  Arnold  was 
hung.  But  the  gallowstree  lifted  him  into  the  sight  of 
all  Christendom. 

Thereafter  Rome  would  not  be  quiet.  A  Free  City  is 
so  instinct  with  hberty  that  its  brick  and  mortar  become 
tinctured  with  the  subtle  essence.  Prussia,  seeking  to 
imperialize  the  German  Confederacy,  found  most  trouble 
with  towns  like  Bremen  and  Hamburg,  whose  working 
people  could  not  forget  their  aforetime  liberties  when 
these  were  Free  Cities.  Rome's  commonalty  has  always 
been  a  nest  of  liornets  in  the  cushion  of  any  despot  who 
thought  there  to  make  a  comfortable  seat.  Not  long 
after  Arnold,  "Rome  and  her  rats"  made  it  so  disagree- 
able for  the  pope  that  he  moved  out,  nor  stopped  until 
he  had  reached  the  valley  of  the  Rhone;  and  for  seventy 
years  the  papacy  pitched  camp  at  Avignon. 

Now  Rienzi  arose  to  take  up  the  unfinished  task 
of  Arnold.  Rienzi  was  a  worshipper  —  Hterally  —  of 
Rome's  ancient  glory.  An  expert  in  archeology,  he  con- 
ducted companies  of  people  through  her  ruins,  and  dis- 
coursed to  them  on  the  scenes  that  had  there  been  enacted. 
His  imagination  kindled.  He  began  to  think  in  terms  of 
an  ideal  commonwealth,  the  good  state  —  il  buono 
BTATO.  By  a  coup  d'etat  he  wrested  control  of  the  city 
from  the  turbulent  nobles.  Then  he  issued  a  proclama- 
tion investing  the  people  with  the  government  and 
property;  a  proprietorship  that  included  the  lands  round 
about.  In  this  uprising  of  a  popular  power  hostile  to 
them  both,  pope  and  nobles  forgot  their  long-standing 
quarrel.  They  joined  hands  against  this  upstart  city- 
state.  Rienzi,  "Last  of  the  Tribunes,"  was  killed,  and 
his  doings  annulled. 


138  THE  FREE  CITY 

These  events  at  Rome  are  a  specimen  of  what  was 
happening  in  a  score  of  places.  A  great  gust  of  freedom 
was  whifFmg  powerfully  through  the  corridors  of  Europe. 
This  age  saw  the  first  popular  parliament  in  France; 
Magna  Charta  in  England;  in  Spain,  permission  secured 
from  Alfonso  of  Castile  for  the  Free  Cities  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  Cortes;  and  deputies  sent  by  the  Cities  in 
Germany  to  the  imperial  Diet.  The  Albigenses  move- 
ment was  in  hke  manner  an  assertion  of  local  spirit  against 
the  centralizing  power  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The 
animosity  against  this  rising  ferment  crops  out  in  the 
chronicle  narrating  the  suppression  of  the  Albigenses :  "The 
brute  and  pestilent  race,  unworthy  of  the  name  of  men, 
were  cut  away  by  the  toil  of  the  faithful,  and  by  God's 
mercy  destroyed."  This  was  the  era  of  The  Jacquerie, 
a  wide  insurgency  of  the  French  peasant  population.  Wat 
Tyler  and  John  Ball  in  England  also  were  preparing. 

Historians  differ  as  to  the  exact  quality  of  this  wide- 
spread and  simultaneous  gusto  of  hberty.*  MunicipaUty, 
whose  principle  is  teamwork,  gives  us  the  clue.  The 
Crusades  had  taught  the  people  to  act  together  —  col- 
lectivity, the  municipal  idea;  declaring  that  work-folk 
are  too  weak  to  stand  individually  against  their  enemies, 
and  therefore  must  assemble  their  social  strengths.  This 
new-found  principle  revealed  to  the  people  their  omnipo- 
tence. Against  their  feudal  lords  the  people  put  into 
play  the  law  of  cooperation  which  the  Crusades  had 
taught  them.  The  people,  restive  against  their  seigneur 
or  baron  or  bishop,  associated  themselves  to  oppose  his 
power.  This  grouping  was  the  formation  of  a  Free  City 
in  that  domain.  "The  air  of  the  town  gives  freedom," 
was  a  medieval  proverb.  To  win  their  freedom  the 
people  had  to  barricade  themselves  from  the  feudal  lord. 
To  retain  their  freedom  they  had  to  solidify  that  barricade 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES  139 

into  a  permanent  ring  of  defense;  which  became  the  city 
wall.  It  wrought  in  the  workers  a  sense  of  joint  interest, 
and  the  practise  of  acting  together.  About  the  year  1100, 
civic  communities  began  to  seek  and  to  obtain  from  king 
or  church,  charters  of  incorporation  against  encroach- 
ment by  lay  and  feudal  barons. 

It  is  well  to  fix  a  clear  picture  of  the  birth  of  Free  Cities 
in  this  Medieval  or  Gothic  era,  as  it  has  come  to  be  called. 
What  we  are  here  witnessing  is  the  rise  of  the  Commons, 
that  Third  Estate  which  was  to  take  its  place  alongside 
the  Clergy  and  the  Nobles,  and  to  play  thenceforward  no 
trivial  part  in  the  annals  of  Europe.  This  thirteenth 
century  —  most  wonderful  of  all  the  eighteen  centuries 
since  Jesus  —  saw  come  into  being  the  city  repubHcs  of 
Italy;  in  France,  the  communes;  in  Spain,  the  com- 
muneros;  the  Freistadte  of  Germany;  the  municipalities 
of  England  and  Scotland.  Freedom  was  the  animating 
spirit  in  their  estabUshing.  So  fiercely  flamed  the  hatred 
between  the  nobility  and  these  municipal  common- 
wealths, the  knights  were  unwilling  to  have  any  of  their 
number  Uve  in  a  town;  if  one  of  them  did  so  without  good 
and  sufficient  cause,  it  ofttimes  disbarred  him  from  their 
tournaments.  The  town  bell  was  the  public  voice  of  the 
community.  And  that  voice  rang  for  freedom.  This 
spirit  of  communal  sovereignty  got  into  some  of  the 
names,  to  this  day:  Freiburg,  in  Germany;  Villefranche, 
in  France;  Villafranca,  in  Spain. 

At  Laon  we  have  preserved  a  contemporary  document. 
The  nobles  in  that  region  had  long  been  accustomed  to 
capture  one  of  the  common  people  and  hold  him  for  a 
ransom.  The  bishop  took  sides  with  these  oppressors 
of  the  workingclass;  was  himself  their  cruellest  oppressor. 
He  would  hand  over  all  who  displeased  him,  to  be  tortured 
by  a  negro  slave  that  he  kept  largely  for  that  purpose. 


140  THE  FREE  CITY 

Forty  of  the  peopJe  swore  to  kill  him.  Learning  of  it, 
he  said,  "What  can  you  expect  these  folk  to  do  by  their 
commotions?  If  my  negro  John  were  to  seize  the  most 
terrible  one  of  them  by  the  nose,  the  fellow  would  not 
dare  to  give  him  even  a  growl.  "VNTiat  they  yesterday 
called  their  'Conmiune'  I  have  forced  them  to  give  up, 
at  least  as  long  as  I  Uve."  But  the  next  day  a  cry  rang 
through  the  town:  "Commune!"  "Commune!"  "Com- 
mune!" It  was  the  signal  for  insurrection.  Bands  of 
men  besieged  the  episcopal  palace,  entered,  and  found  the 
bishop  hiding  in  a  cask  at  the  bottom  of  the  cellar.  They 
killed  him.  Not  long  thereafter  the  king  granted  to 
Laon  a  charter  for  a  Conmiune.  In  forming  one  of  these 
Free  Cities,  the  people  were  accustomed  to  join  them- 
selves to  each  other  by  a  solemn  oath  known  as  The 
Conjuration.  In  1230  John,  Bishop  of  Eppes,  obtained 
from  the  emperor  a  decree  forbidding  "conjurations" 
and  "conununes"  in  all  the  kingdom  of  Germany. 

These  commimes  were  hterally  commonwealths  —  a 
conmiunity  of  interest  and  property  and  person;  that  is, 
they  felt,  thought,  planned  as  one.  We  shall  see  these 
Giothic  folk  working  miracles  of  art  achievement  that 
are  the  despair  of  modems.  The  secret  of  that  art 
baptism  is  to  be  found  in  this  oneness  of  the  civic  tie 
whereby  the  magic  of  crowd  contagion  and  mass  activity 
was  Uberated.  At  fairs,  if  a  buyer  was  tricked,  the  laws 
of  the  fair  held  not  only  the  trickster  but  aU  the  other 
tradesmen  from  that  town  responsible;  and  the  goods 
of  any  of  them  could  be  seized  to  compensate  the  victim. 
"All  the  men  of  the  Commune,"  read  the  charter  of  SenHs, 
"shall  aid  each  other  with  all  their  power."  The  charter 
of  Abbeville  commanded:  "Each  of  the  men  of  the  Com- 
mune shall  be  faithful  to  his  fellow,  come  to  his  succor, 
lend  him  aid  and  counsel." 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES  141 

The  community  was  the  source  of  power  and  authority; 
even  of  the  authority  to  work.  The  town  council  por- 
tioned out  the  right  to  practise  a  trade  to  a  guild  of 
workmen.  We  find  the  gold-beaters'  guild,  the  iron- 
workers' guild,  guilds  of  pewter  makers,  candle  chandlers, 
ale  brewers,  naUmakers,  button  makers,  glovers,  lantern 
makers,  potters,  rope  makers,  wire  drawers,  jewellers, 
gem  cutters;  and  so  forward.  The  community  not  only 
had  power;  it  accepted  the  responsibility  that  goes  with 
power.  The  city  saw  to  it  that  every  man  was  educated 
in  order  to  be  able  to  work;  and  then  supplied  him  with 
work.  Unemployment  would  have  been  regarded  as  civic 
incompetency  and  municipal  collapse. 

In  the  towns  of  Flanders  the  city  bell  was  called  the 
Werkklock,  because  it  began  and  stopped  the  day's  tasks. 
The  chiefs  of  the  work  guilds  were  not  elected  by  the 
workers,  but  were  appointed  by  the  civic  magistracy; 
and  their  by-laws  were  drawn  up  by  the  same  public 
body.  Work  was  compulsory.  A  strike  was  accounted  a 
crime  against  the  commonwealth.  The  artisan  was  re- 
garded as  an  official  in  the  service  of  the  municipaUty; 
and  he  was  protected  against  competition  both  from  in- 
side and  outside  the  state.  An  artisan  was  not  per- 
mitted to  undersell  another;  he  was  absolutely  forbidden 
to  have  recourse  to  advertisements,  or  to  boast  his  wares 
to  the  disparaging  of  another's.  At  Saint  Omer  a  market 
ordinance  forbade  a  vendor  even  to  greet  the  passers-by. 
Industry  was  a  municipal  affair.  No  one  was  permitted 
to  crush  his  fellow.  There  was  a  wholesome  spirit  of 
rivalry;  but  not  between  man  and  man.  The  rivalry 
was  between  all  of  the  workers  in  one  Commune,  seeking 
to  make  their  town  more  beautiful  and  famous  than  the 
Communes  round  about. 

The  citizens  were  connected  with  the  municipality, 


142  THE  FREE  CITY 

not  as  individuals  but  through  their  craft  guilds.  Police  ser- 
vice was  rendered  by  all  the  able-bodied,  each  taking  his  turn 
at  the  "watch  and  ward."  In  Paris  we  find  the  Old  Clothes' 
Guild  securing  partial  exemption  from  this  service :  * '  No  one 
who  is  60  years  old,  nor  those  whose  wives  are  with  child, 
and  no  one  who  has  been  bled,  need  to  share  the  watch." 

The  guilds  had  a  legal  standing.  The  power  to  en- 
force regulations  on  their  members  was  backed  by  the 
arm  of  the  state.  The  Commune  guaranteed  the  eco- 
nomic well-being  of  all;  and  enforced  obedience  from  all. 
The  guilds  were  for  service,  not  for  selfishness.  The 
municipahty  was  sovereign  over  them.  Athens  of  old 
had  met  the  tendency  of  a  guild  of  workmen  to  set  their 
departmental  interest  ahead  of  the  interest  of  the  entire 
community;  and  had  severely  disallowed  this  drift.  So 
with  the  Gothic  cities.  No  set  of  workmen  were  per- 
mitted to  account  themselves  above  other  workmen.  In 
one  Commune  we  find  that  even  the  mendicants  were 
recognized:  the  Beggars'  Guild.  The  municipal  republic 
is  the  only  political  form  that  has  ever  been  able  to  en- 
courage the  growth  of  trade  unions  and  at  the  same  time 
retain  the  lordship  over  those  unions  so  as  to  direct  their 
energies  away  from  private  advantage  into  channels  of 
pubhc  well-being.  The  Gothic  guilds  maintained  schools, 
arranged  technical  training  and  apprenticeships,  cared  for 
orphans,  decorated  festivals  for  the  people;  they  built  the 
hospitals  that,  along  with  the  city  halls  and  cathedrals, 
stand  so  wondrously  as  the  monuments  of  the  period. 

It  was  an  age  of  brotherhood,  literally  and  actually.  The 
guildsmen  were  citizens  first,  and  industrialists  afterwards. 
Thus  they  had  an  allegiance  superior  than  to  their  trade; 
were  human  beings.  By  the  principle  of  collectivity  the 
workers  had  possessed  themselves  of  power  against  their 
feudal  seigneurs.    Now,  from  adding  Hberty  unto  them, 


INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACIES  143 

this  same  principle  of  municipality  went  on  to  ennoble  and 
sweeten  those  workers.  We  saw  that  the  Great  Common- 
wealthsman  discom-aged  the  accumulation  of  a  private  for- 
tune: "Seek  ye  first  the  city  of  God  and  its  righteousness, 
and  all  other  things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  The  taking 
of  anxious  thought  for  one's  Hvehhood  was  regarded  by 
him  as  a  breach  of  confidence  in  the  Commune. 

The  Gothic  commonwealths  caught  up  from  Him  this 
idea  of  the  collectivity,  and  cherished  it.  One  of  the 
"best  sellers"  in  that  day  was  the  Romance  of  the  Rose. 
Here  is  a  passage  from  it:  "Three  cruel  vengeances 
pursue  those  wretches  that  hoard  up  their  worthless 
wealth:  sore  labor  in  the  winning  it,  their  fear  to  lose  it, 
and  lastly  the  most  bitter  grief  that  they  must  leave  their 
hoards  behind.  If  they  were  fain,  who  hold  so  much 
gold,  to  shower  around  their  bounty  unto  those  in  need 
thereof,  and  nobly  lend  it  free  from  measurement  of  usury, 
I  guess  that  then  throughout  the  land  were  seen  no  pauper 
man,  nor  starveling  purchased  woman." 

This  was  the  age  that  saw  the  coming  of  the  Friars: 
men  whose  apostolate  had  for  its  purpose  to  carry  the 
gospel  from  the  monasteries  out  into  the  busy  haunts  of 
men.  It  was  the  age  of  St.  Francis,  and  of  his  plea  for 
fraternity,  even  to  the  extent  of  returning  to  evangelical 
poverty.  The  poverello's  contempt  for  riches  attracted 
multitudes  of  men  and  women.  "The  good  order  of 
Christ,"  it  was  called;  democracy  towards  the  lowliest 
human,  and  comprehending  even  the  birds  and  flowers  of 
the  meadow.  The  birth  of  Free  Cities  caught  up  all 
classes  in  a  communalistic  ardor.  Rarely  has  the  world 
witnessed  another  so  impassioned  era  of  fellowship.  In- 
stead of  the  self-seekings  and  self-importances  of  the 
Dark  Ages,  men  now  learned  the  principle  of  collectivity. 
And  loveUest  achievings  were  the  consequence. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A   WORK  STATE 

THE  Gothic  communes  arose  in  a  movement  by  the 
workers  for  freedom;  that  is,  in  order  to  secure  to 
themselves  the  full  product  of  their  toil.  Free 
people  are  those  who  labor,  and  who  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
their  labor.  All  others  are  in  slavery.  "It  is  good  and 
comely  for  one  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  to  enjoy  the  good 
of  all  his  labor  that  he  taketh  under  the  sun  all  the  days 
of  his  Ufe,  which  God  giveth  him;  for  it  is  his  portion." 
By  collective  effort,  the  toilers  found  that  they  could 
overcome  the  knight,  baron,  or  feudal  seigneur;  and  that, 
by  continuing  the  association,  they  could  perpetuate  the 
emancipation.  That  was  the  origin  of  those  Free  Cities. 
Then  the  nobles  adopted  other  tactics.  They  lo- 
cated their  castles  near  to  the  trade  routes  along  which 
the  suppUes  came  to  those  towns;  and  began  a  systematic 
pillage  of  the  convoys.  The  Rhine  was  the  principal  route 
between  Italy  and  the  cities  of  North  Germany  and  the 
Netherlands.  The  castles  on  the  banks  of  that  river  — 
picturesque  now  in  their  ruins  —  were  robber  strongholds. 
For  a  noble  to  engage  in  a  productive  occupation  dis- 
graced and  declassed  him.  Even  to  associate  with  these 
burghers  —  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  burghs,  the  forti- 
fied cities,  were  called  —  was  a  blemish  on  the  seignorial 
escutcheon.  So,  they  got  their  Uving  by  pillaging  the 
trade  caravans.    To  guard  the  routes,  we  soon  find  the 

144 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE    145 

Cities  making  highway  regulations.  The  law  read  that 
roads  leading  from  one  market  town  to  another  must  be 
cleared,  as  to  the  bushes  and  underbrush,  for  a  space  of 
two  hundred  feet  on  each  side,  to  prevent  men  from 
"liu-king  in  them  to  do  hurt." 

From  that,  the  Cities  went  on  to  a  further  step:  they 
federated.  These  federations  were  purely  for  defense. 
Military  might  for  purposes  of  aggression  did  not 
come  into  their  mind.  The  municipal  state  is  al- 
ways a  civiHan  state.  These  Gothic  municipaHties  arose 
to  bring  to  an  end  the  Dark  Ages  which  had  been  char- 
acterized by  competition  between  man  and  man,  leading 
to  private  declarations  of  war  and  physical  force.  So 
habitual  had  the  scufflings  become  that  the  Church  had 
sought  to  establish  a  "Peace  of  God,"  which  forbade 
warfarings  from  Thursday  evening  till  Monday  morning 
of  each  week.  The  workers  at  last  became  weary  of  so 
turbulent  a  condition  of  affairs.  They  wished  to  be 
something  other  than  the  men-at-arms  of  a  feudal  chief- 
tain, swaggering,  brawling,  pillaging.  In  order  to  es- 
tablish a  pacific  form  of  society,  so  as  to  lead  their 
respective  calhngs  in  peace,  they  associated  themselves 
into  Free  Cities.  In  the  charter  obtained  by  the  town  of 
Lorris,  one  of  the  articles  read:  "No  burgher  shall  go 
on  an  expedition,  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  from  which  he 
cannot  return  the  same  day  to  his  home  if  he  desires." 
A  soldiery  that  insists  on  returning  home  every  night, 
would  not  be  of  much  use  for  military  purposes. 

In  the  charter  of  the  League  of  Rhine  Cities,  1291,  it  is 
almost  pathetic  to  note  the  reiterated  yearnings  for  a 
peaceable  mode  of  life:  "To  secure  these  things  which 
are  for  the  pubhc  good,  we  will  spare  neither  ourselves 
nor  our  possessions.  We  will  mutually  aid  each  other 
with  all  our  strength  in  securing  redress  from  our  griev- 


146  THE  FREE  CITY 

ances.  We  decree  that  no  member  of  the  League  shall 
fmnish  food,  arms,  or  aid  to  anyone  who  opposes  the 
Peace.  No  citizen  of  any  of  the  Cities  in  the  League  shall 
associate  with  such,  or  give  them  coxmsel  or  support.  If 
anyone  is  convicted  of  doing  so,  he  shall  be  expelled  from 
the  city,  and  punished  so  severely  in  his  property  that  he 
will  be  a  warning  to  others  not  to  do  such  things.  If 
any  knight  molest  us  anywhere  outside  of  the  walled 
towns,  he  is  breaking  the  Peace;  and  we  will  in  some  way 
inflict  due  punishment  on  him  and  his  possessions,  no 
matter  who  he  is.  We  wish  to  be  protectors  of  the  peas- 
ants, if  they  will  observe  the  Peace  with  us.  But  if  they 
make  war  on  us,  and  if  we  catch  them  in  any  of  the 
Cities,  we  will  punish  them.  We  wish  the  Cities  to 
destroy  all  the  ferries  except  those  in  their  immediate 
neighborhood;  this  to  be  done  in  order  that  the  enemies 
of  the  Peace  may  be  deprived  of  all  means  of  crossing 
the  Rhine.  Under  threat  of  punishment  we  forbid  any 
citizen  to  revile  the  lords,  although  they  may  be  our 
enemies.  For  although  we  wish  to  punish  them  for  the 
violence  they  have  done  us,  yet  before  making  war  on 
them  we  will  first  warn  them  to  cease  from  injuring  us. 
We  desire  that  each  City  shall  try  to  persuade  its  neigh- 
boring Cities  to  swear  to  keep  the  Peace.  If  they  do 
not  do  so,  they  will  be  entirely  cut  off  from  the  Peace. 
We  wish  all  members  of  the  League,  lords  and  all  the 
others,  to  arm  themselves  and  prepare  for  war,  so  that 
whenever  we  call  upon  them  we  shall  find  them  ready." 

This  federation  idea  spread  to  the  Swiss  communities; 
so  that  we  behold  them  forming  aUiance  against  the  House 
of  Hapsburg.  The  confederacy  of  Swiss  communes,  by 
producing  instances  of  valor  such  as  that  of  Wilham  Tell 
and  Arnold  von  Winkelried,  demonstrates  that  the  federal 
plan  of  union  is  more  conducive  to  heroism  than  the 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE    147 

nationalist  principle  of  fusion.  A  free  community  has  a 
stamina  and  capacity  for  resistance,  not  possessed  by  a 
subject  people.    Say  these  communes  of  Switzerland: 

"Know  all  men  that  we,  the  people  of  the  Valley  of 
Uri,  the  conununity  of  the  Valley  of  Schwiz,  and  the 
mountaineers  of  the  Lower  Valley,  have  solemnly  agreed 
and  bound  ourselves  by  oath  to  aid  and  defend  each  other 
with  all  our  might  and  main;  with  our  hves  and  property; 
both  within  and  without  our  boundaries  each  at  his 
own  expense;  against  every  enemy  whatever  who  shall 
attempt  to  molest  us.  We  have  decreed  that  we  will 
accept  no  magistrate  in  our  Valleys  who  is  not  a  native 
or  resident  among  us.  Every  difference  among  us  shall 
be  decided  by  the  wisest  men;  and  whoever  shall  reject 
their  award  shall  be  compelled  by  the  other  confederates. 
If  internal  quarrels  arise  and  one  of  the  parties  shall  re- 
fuse fair  satisfaction,  the  confederates  shall  support  the 
other  party.  This  covenant  for  our  common  weal  shall, 
God  wilHng,  endure  forever." 

The  municipal  republics  in  North  Italy  were  in  perhaps 
a  more  necessitous  situation  than  the  others.  They 
were  between  the  pope  on  one  side,  who  from  his  seat 
in  Rome  asserted  imperial  prerogatives;  and  the  emperor 
on  the  other  side,  head  of  the  Holy  German  Empire. 
Accordingly,  Florence  and  her  sister  republics  in  the  valley 
of  the  Arno  alUed  themselves  in  what  was  known  as  the 
Tuscan  League.  Milan  and  her  neighbor  republics,  in 
like  fashion,  formed  themselves  into  the  Lombard  League. 
Thereupon  they  put  both  pope  and  emperor  into  a  due 
posture  of  reverence  towards  these  Communes  that  were 
so  mightily  emerging.  The  Battle  of  Legnano,  when  the 
Milanese  sent  the  army  of  the  emperor  scurrying  back 
through  the  passes  of  the  Alps  into  Germany,  is  one  of 
the  notable  events  in  the  history  of  human  freedom. 


148  THE  FREE  CITY 

Along  the  Baltic  arose  still  another  federation  —  the 
Hanseatic  Cities.  The  engrossment  of  the  German  em- 
peror with  his  Tuscan  and  Lombard  cities  so  energetically 
mutinous  against  his  suzerainty,  gave  to  the  Baltic 
towns  the  wholesome  inattentiveness  which  enabled  them 
to  learn  the  lesson  of  self-help.  They  were  not  long  in 
demonstrating  that  their  interests  were  not  towards  the 
empire,  but  towards  their  civic  hearthstones.  Com- 
plained the  Emperor  Maximilian:  "If  one  of  these 
traders  only  lost  a  bag  of  pepper,  he  disturbed  the  whole 
empire  about  it;  but  if  his  imperial  crown  were  in  jeopardy 
not  a  man  would  stir."  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Luebeck 
were  the  original  confederates.  To  this  nucleus,  one 
after  one  other  towns  joined  themselves.  Till  finally  the 
Hanse  Cities  extended  from  Norway  to  the  Alps,  and 
from  Russia  on  the  east,  far  into  the  Low  Country  and 
France.  This  international  sway  they  exercised  is  of 
high  significance.  It  shows  that  the  boundary  Unes 
drawn  by  nationality  are  artificial;  frontiers  arbitrarily 
drawn  to  suit  commercial  or  dynastic  ends;  there  is  no 
spot  on  earth  where  the  boundaries  of  race  and  nation- 
aUty  coincide. 

The  Hanseatics  made  the  City  the  supreme  unit.  And 
on  that  system  they  organized  all  of  northern  Europe,  irre- 
spective of  language  or  race  or  position.  Nominally  they 
were  under  the  sway  of  the  empire.  But  this  was  a  for- 
mality preserved  for  the  sake  of  appearances.  Emperor 
Charles  IV,  though  he  had  expressed  disapproval  of  such 
confederations,  made  an  about-face  and  paid  overtures 
that  he  might  become  their  head.  Courteously,  but  with 
steel-hard  resolution,  they  rejected  his  advances. 

These  Hanseatic  Communes  were  a  true  federalism; 
that  is,  they  retained  the  autonomy  of  the  local  units; 
they  never  fused.    For  their  joint  business  they  held 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE    149 

Councils  or  Diets.  The  Diets  met  in  the  various  cities 
and  to  it  the  Free  Towns  in  the  League  sent  delegates. 
But  the  Diet  had  no  binding  authority.  The  call  for  a 
Diet  specified  the  business  that  would  be  taken  up. 
Thereupon  each  city  held  what  were  known  as  "Prede- 
hberations,"  to  instruct  its  delegates  in  the  matter  that 
the  Diet  was  to  consider.  When  some  joint  action  had 
been  agreed  upon,  there  was  still  no  coercion  on  the  local 
units.  A  city  that  broke  discipline  was  "imhansed"; 
excluded  from  the  federation.  This  principle  of  punish- 
ment was  advocated  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  against 
South  Carolina,  in  preference  to  the  application  of  vio- 
lence, when  she  was  nullifying  an  act  of  Congress: 

Go  then,  our  rash  sister,  afar  and  aloof; 
Run  wild  in  the  sunshine  away  from  our  roof. 
But  when  your  heart  aches  and  your  feet  have 

grown  sore, 
Remember  the  pathway  that  leads  to  our  door. 

A  city  excluded  from  the  Hanseatic  League  was  well 
nigh  given  over  to  death.  The  Great  Ban  not  only 
separated  the  culprit  city  from  the  League,  but  forbade 
any  of  the  other  cities  to  have  intercourse  with  her. 
Nor  was  the  ban  lifted  until  the  offender,  by  money 
payment,  by  penances,  by  pilgrimages,  by  humble  sup- 
plications, had  testified  to  the  sincerity  of  her  repentance. 
The  Lesser  Ban  did  not  deprive  the  city  of  intercourse 
with  other  cities,  but  merely  took  away  her  rights  at  the 
Diet.  For  still  lesser  offenses,  the  punishment  was  a  fine. 
Severest  penalties  were  denounced  against  any  Hanse 
municipaUty  that  appealed  from  the  Diet  to  any  prince 
or  lord,  or  to  the  emperor.  One  of  the  ordinances  of  the 
League  decreed  that  a  vessel  lost  on  the  coast  did  not 
become  wholly  the  possession  of  the  natives  at  that  spot; 


150  THE  FREE  CITY 

this,  to  discourage  the  illumination  of  false  beacons 
whereby  vessels  were  lured  to  their  destruction  for  the 
sake  of  the  wreckage.  Luebeck  refused  to  agree  to  this 
ordinance.  She  was  boycotted  by  the  rest  of  the  League. 
Whereupon  we  read  of  her:  "The  people  starved,  tH 
markets  were  deserted,  grass  grew  in  the  streets,  and  the 
inhabitants  left  in  large  numbers." 

The  Hanseatic  League  was  powerful.  The  King  of 
Denmark  once  invaded  their  rights,  attacking  one  of  their 
cities  and  pillaging  it.  The  Hanse  Towns  declared  war 
upon  him,  and  fought  him  to  his  knees.  Kingdoms 
treated  with  them  on  equal  terms;  emperors  courted 
their  good  will.  They  poUced  the  Baltic  and  the  North 
Seas  until  the  pirates  that  had  infested  these  waters  left 
off  and  betook  themselves  to  an  honest  Uvelihood.  Nor 
was  this  power  wielded  for  militaristic  or  aggressive  in- 
vasion. Their  pacifist  spirit  led  them,  if  anything,  into 
an  excess  of  the  compromising  policy.  When  they  had 
brought  Denmark's  king  to  book,  they  exacted  of  him 
control  of  some  of  his  ports,  until  the  damage  he  had 
caused  them  should  be  recompensed.  But  to  collect  even 
tills  rightful  indemnity  became  quickly  distasteful.  Long 
before  the  stipulated  term  they  relinquished  his  territory; 
preferring  to  lose  money  rather  than  collect  it  by  mili- 
taristic methods.  Northern  Europe,  after  five  centuries  of 
Dark  Ages,  had  presented  one  of  the  blackest  infernos  of 
hell-chaos  that  the  ordering  mind  of  man  has  ever  been 
called  upon  to  confront.  The  Hanseatic  Free  Cities  took 
that  heU,  and  transformed  it  into  Gothic  architecture 
and  sculpture,  which  travellers  to-day  journey  thousands 
of  miles  to  gaze  at.  So  warm  was  the  social  union  en- 
gendered by  these  free  municipahties  that  two  of  them, 
Hamburg  and  Bremen,  endured  until  our  own  day.  It 
was  not  until  1888  that  these  two  were  finally  brought  to 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE      151 

surrender  their  independence  and  enter  the  Prussian 
customs  union. 

Behind  the  walls  and  bastions  of  Gothic  communes, 
civil  Hberty  took  root;  civil  liberty,  which  is  another 
^Ift^t^  'for  industrial  liberty.  There  were  guilds  of 
Free  Masons,  Free  Carpenters,  Free  Blacksmiths,  Free 
Goldsmitha  In  Florence  one  of  the  far-famed  magis- 
trates was  Michael  di  Lando,  a  laborer  elevated  to  the 
post  of  rulership,  and  who  mightily  puUed  the  teeth  of 
the  recalcitrant  nobles.  This  Commune  on  the  Amo  was 
a  household;  Uvely  enough,  to  be  sure  —  "a  place  where 
everybody  speaks  his  mind."  But,  for  all  the  disputings, 
they  were  citizens  melted  into  oneness  by  civic  pride; 
as  that  Gahleo,  "who  loved  the  Commune  marvellously." 
Here  in  Florence  the  humbler  classes  were  known  as  "the 
lesser  arts";  it  was  understood  that  everybody  should 
have  a  part  in  the  creation  of  things  beautiful.  The 
entire  political  fabric  was  based  on  the  principle  of 
productivity. 

The  world's  work  in  that  day  was  not  performed  by 
individuals.  In  very  truth  the  individual  as  such  hardly 
existed.  To-day  we  hear  much  of  "personal  liberty";  by 
which  is  meant  an  individualistic  ordering  of  one's  life, 
a  following  of  egoistic  whims  and  vagaries.  The  Gothic 
era  knew  that  Uberty  is  a  conmiunal  possession;  that  it 
is  but  another  word  for  fellowship.  A  workman,  by 
reason  of  his  productive  bent,  is  not  skilled  in  the  use  of 
arms.  When  isolated,  therefore,  he  is  defenceless  against 
the  exploiter,  who  makes  a  specialty  of  the  arts  of  violence 
and  aggression.  The  Dark  Ages  had  precisely  been  a 
time  of  "personal  Uberty."  And  the  result  we  saw  —  a 
wild-jangling  confusion;  thievings  and  quarrellings  and 
slaughter;  ending  finally  in  the  serfdom  of  the  toiler  class 
beneath  the  seigneur's  mail-clad  might.    MunicipaUty  is 


152  THE  FREE  CITY 

the  principle  of  collectivity,  as  opposed  to  anarchistic  in- 
dividualism. When  the  workingclass  discovered  this 
principle,  it  obtained  freedom;  began  to  enjoy  the  full 
product  of  its  toil. 

In  these  commonwealths  the  ego  was  a  part  of  some- 
thing larger.  That  Something  Larger  was  first  the  munic- 
ipaUty;  and  then  the  confederation  of  municipaUties, 
extending  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  individual  sur- 
rendered his  private  sovereignty  to  the  commune.  Work 
was  a  collective  thing.  They  sociaUzed  their  produc- 
tivity; and  with  a  thoroughness  that  moderns,  in  our 
divisive  unaffectionate  day,  have  diflficulty  to  understand. 
The  ego  gave  himself  to  the  cormnunity.  But,  in  return, 
the  community  gave  itself  to  him.  So  his  self-limitation 
turned  out  to  be  self-expansion. 

The  Free  Cities  had  no  bowels  of  mercy  towards  any- 
one who  "in  ease  and  sloth  doth  Hve  on  the  sweat  of 
others,  and  puffeth  himself  up  in  lustful  pride."  In 
Paris  we  find  the  regulations:  "Retailers  ought  not  to 
buy  in  advance,  of  a  merchant,  eggs  and  cheese  deUver- 
able  on  his  next  trip."  And  the  reason  was  stated: 
"The  rich  will  sell  back  everything  as  dear  as  it  pleases 
them  to  do."  There  were  severe  guild  regulations  "to 
restrain  the  folly  and  joUity  of  the  apprentices."  The 
fatherly  hand  was  stern,  but  it  also  was  just.  In  a  Paris 
guild  we  find  it  recorded:  "We  have  commanded  the 
said  master  to  treat  his  apprentice  by  the  matters  con- 
tained in  the  said  contract,  without  having  him  beaten 
by  his  wife;  but  that  he  should  beat  him  himself  if  he 
misbehaved." 

That  word  "fatherly"  quite  expresses  the  relation  be- 
tween the  elders  in  any  craft,  and  the  youngsters  entering 
it.  A  social  bond  held  the  master  and  his  apprentice 
together.    The  learner  of  a  trade  passed  through  three 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE     153 

distinct  stages.  He  began  as  an  Apprentice  —  the 
Lehryahre.  After  three  or  five  years  he  became  an  art 
pilgrim  —  the  Wanderyahre.  Dm-ing  this  second  period 
he  journeyed  from  city  to  city,  broadening  his  powers. 
This  was  his  Jom'nejmian  stage.  On  returning,  he  was  set 
to  do  an  original  piece  of  work,  as  his  examination  for 
entrance  into  the  Master  rank.  Whence  we  derive  the 
word  "masterpiece."  The  work  had  to  show  a  finished 
and  competent  craftsmanship,  or  the  title  of  "Master" 
was  denied  him. 

Because  of  this  visiting  of  Journeymen  from  commune 
to  commune,  each  guild  was  a  sort  of  hospitaller  to  those 
of  its  craft  who  were  strangers  in  the  city.  Masons,  since 
their  work  takes  them  from  home  much  of  the  time,  and 
for  long  durations,  were  especially  given  to  hospitaUty 
towards  visiting  fellowcraftsmen.  We  see  in  Freemasons 
to-day  an  elaborate  set  of  signs  for  identifying  strangers; 
and  a  large  hberahty  in  making  an  authenticated  member 
at  home  amongst  them.  The  Freemasonic  lodges,  with 
their  stateliness  of  ritual  and  their  fraternal  features,  are 
a  Hneal  perpetuator  of  the  guilds  of  brick  and  stone 
masons  of  this  period.  These  Gothic  cities  had,  as  we 
saw,  a  historic  root  in  the  Crusades.  Accordingly  the 
Freemasons'  claim  to  a  lineage  dating  mystically  from 
Solomon's  Temple  in  Jerusalem,  is  tinctured  with  authen- 
ticity. Modern  readers  will  get  a  fair  idea  of  the  religion 
of  labor  as  these  Gothic  guilds  developed  it,  by  im- 
agining a  trade  union  in  our  day  carrying  on  its  weekly 
meetings  with  the  solemnity  of  temper  and  majesty  of 
ceremonial  that  characterize  a  lodge  of  Freemasons. 
That  apron  worn  as  so  proud  a  part  of  their  regalia  was 
in  the  Gothic  era  no  mere  ornamentation,  but  a  service- 
able part  of  the  workclothes  of  a  high-minded  day  laborer 
toiling  in  brick  and  terra  cotta  and  stone. 


154  THE  FREE  CITY 

This  majesty  and  largeness  of  demeanor  on  the  part  of 
those  workmen,  and  which  touched  their  product  into 
so  strange  a  beauty,  was  due  to  the  civic  mind  that  was 
in  them.  The  worker  wrought  not  for  himself  primarily, 
nor  to  a  gainful  end,  but  for  the  community.  The 
burgher's  person  and  goods  belonged  to  the  city;  could 
be  requisitioned  at  any  time.  Each  citizen  had  taken 
an  oath  to  the  Commune.  An  isolated  worker  was 
unthinkable.  All  were  answerable  for  each.  The  indi- 
vidual carried  in  his  hands  the  fair  name  of  his  munic- 
ipaUty.  Therefore  he  sought  to  maintain  himself  and 
his  product  to  the  height  of  the  occasion.  The  cauldrons 
of  Dinant,  the  woolen  stuffs  of  Bruges  and  Ypres  and 
Ghent  and  Louvain,  were  inwrought  with  citizenly  self- 
reverence.  The  city  of  Arras  became  so  famous  for  her 
tapestries  that  in  Shakespeare's  Hamlet  we  read  "behind 
the  arras,"  where  "behind  the  tapestry"  is  what  is  meant. 

In  Paris  we  find  the  haberdashers  complaining  that 
there  had  been  put  out  "several  pieces  of  bad  work,  to 
the  damage  of  all  the  commonweal  every  day,  by  reason 
of  the  lack  of  restrictions."  As  late  as  1456,  two  grocers 
and  a  woman  assistant  were  burned  aUve  in  Nuremburg 
for  selling  adulterated  goods.  Guild  law  said  that  wares 
must  be  "in  the  eyes  of  all,  good,  irreproachable  and  with- 
out flaw."  Municipal  ordinances  compelled  an  artisan  to 
practise  his  trade  openly  at  his  window,  to  facihtate  in- 
spection. This  mania  for  quality  in  workmanship  is 
witnessed  in  the  contract  Torregiano  took  for  the  making 
of  a  tomb.  He  was  required  to  make  it  "well,  surely, 
cleanly,  and  workmanUke,  curiously  and  substantially." 
Florence  was  famed  for  her  workers  in  woolen;  one  of 
the  rules  of  which  guild  required  that  a  label  be  put  on 
every  piece  of  cloth,  stating  the  number  of  yards,  and 
any  imperfections.    Often  the  regulations  forbade  work 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE    155 

after  nightfall,  "by  reason  that  no  man  can  work  so 
neatly  by  night  as  by  day." 

The  eleventh  century,  when  the  Gothic  communes 
were  getting  into  their  stride,  was  a  time  of  reHgious 
awakening.  A  municipal  commonwealth,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  always  a  theocracy.  Within  those  circumscribed 
frontiers,  the  closeness  of  contact  brings  about  an  inter- 
action between  the  dreamer  of  dreams  and  the  doer  of 
deeds;  an  interfusing  of  spirituaHty  and  worldliness, 
to  the  advantage  of  both.  The  Gothic  commonwealths 
were  not  so  entirely  sovereign  as  the  city-states  of  the 
classic  world.  But  in  the  measure  that  they  were  Free 
Cities,  they  displayed  the  same  union  of  the  sacred  and 
the  secular,  which  we  saw  in  Athens  and  Jerusalem  and 
early  Rome.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Gothic 
commonwealths  were  at  their  highest.  That  century 
was  Christianity's  strongest  time.  It  was  the  era  of  the 
cathedral  builders,  and  the  uprearing  of  those  hotels  de 
ville  that  stand  now  in  so  stately  a  magnificence.  The 
Gothic  is  a  reUgious  style  of  architecture.  It  extended 
to  all  of  the  buildings  of  that  period,  including  even  bams 
and  sheepfolds.  There  was  no  distinction  between  sacred 
and  profane;  life  in  its  totality  was  held  to  be  sacred. 
The  upward-striving  note  of  aspiration  marked  all  the 
building  of  the  period.  The  private  houses  had  pointed 
arches  over  the  doors  and  windows;  excellent  glasswork, 
traceries,  finials,  and  usually  a  Christ  or  Madonna  in  a 
niche  over  the  entrance.  The  Gothic  was  not  a  specially 
designed  school  of  construction  for  use  only  in  stately 
edifices.  It  was  the  informing  spirit  in  aU  the  life  of  the 
time.  Everything  was  religious;  because  everything  was 
done  to  the  Spirit  of  Fellowship. 

India  and  Japan  were  coadjutors  with  the  Mediter- 
ranean  world    in    estabUshing    civihzation    upon    earth. 


156  THE  FREE  CITY 

And  in  both  of  those  countries  life  also  organized  itself 
on  a  basis  of  industrial  communes,  devotionally  admin- 
istered. As  to  Japan,  Lafcadio  Hearn  testifies:  *'A11 
craftsmen  and  all  laborers  formed  guilds,  and  prohibited 
competition  as  imdertaken  for  purely  personal  ad- 
vantage. Nearly  similar  forms  of  organization  are 
maintained  by  laborers  to-day,  in  the  old  communistic 
manner.  Apprentices  bound  to  a  master-workman 
were  boarded,  lodged,  clothed  and  even  educated  by 
their  patron,  with  whom  they  might  hope  to  pass  the  rest 
of  their  Uves.  These  paternal  and  filial  relations  have 
helped  to  make  life  pleasant  and  labor  cheerful.  The 
quahty  of  all  industrial  production  must  suffer  much 
when  they  disappear." 

"To  the  Indian  land-and-village-system,"  reports  Bird- 
wood,  "we  owe  altogether  the  hereditary  cimning  of  the 
Hindoo  craftsmen.  It  has  created  for  him  simple  plenty 
and  a  scheme  of  democratic  life  in  which  all  are  coordi- 
nated parts  of  one  undivided  and  indivisible  whole;  the 
provision  and  respect  due  to  every  man  in  it  being  en- 
forced under  the  highest  rehgious  sanctions.  The  village 
communities  remain  in  full  vigor  all  over  the  peninsula. 
The  religious  trade  union  villagers  have  remained  stead- 
fast." And  of  the  Indian  craftsman  he  says:  "He 
knows  nothing  of  the  desperate  struggle  for  existence 
which  oppresses  life  and  crushes  the  soul  out  of  the 
English  workingman.  He  has  his  assured  place,  in- 
herited from  father  to  son  for  a  hundred  generations. 
This  at  once  reheves  him  from  an  incalculable  weight  of 
cares,  and  enables  him  to  give  to  his  work,  which  is  also  a 
religious  function,  that  contentment  of  mind,  and  leisure 
and  pride  and  pleasure  in  it  for  its  own  sake,  which  are 
essential  to  all  artistic  excellence." 

Of  that  communal  life,  Coomaraswamy  to  whom   I 


THE  CITY  STATE  IS  A  WORK  STATE    157 

owe  these  quotations,  has  gathered  much  evidence.  "In 
the  East,"  he  says,  "there  is  traditionally  a  peculiar  re- 
lation of  devotion  between  master  and  pupil;  it  is  thought 
that  the  master's  secret,  his  real  inward  method  so  to  say, 
is  best  learned  by  the  pupil  in  devoted  personal  service. 
And  so  we  get  a  beautiful  and  affectionate  relation  be- 
tween the  apprentice  and  master.  I  have  seen  a  man  of 
thirty  receive  wages  in  the  presence  of  his  teacher  and 
hand  them  to  him  as  the  master,  with  the  gentlest  pos- 
sible respect  and  grace;  and  as  gently  and  dehcately  they 
were  received  and  handed  back,  waiving  the  right  to 
retain." 

Very  ancient  of  date,  these  communalistic  craft  guilds 
of  India.  We  read  of  "a  village  of  carpenters  in  which 
five  hundred  carpenters  lived.  They  would  go  up  the 
river  in  a  vessel  and  enter  the  forest,  where  they  would 
shape  beams  and  planks  for  house-building,  and  put  to- 
gether the  framework  of  houses,  numbering  all  the  pieces. 
These  they  then  brought  down  to  the  river  bank  and  put 
them  all  on  board.  Then  rowing  downstream  again, 
they  would  build  houses  to  order  as  it  was  required  of 
them.  After  which  they  went  back  for  more  materials; 
and  in  this  way  they  made  their  hvelihood."  We  learn 
of  a  "smith's  village  of  a  thousand  houses;  people  came 
from  the  villages  around  to  have  razors,  axes,  plowshares, 
and  goads  made."  A  passage  in  the  Ramayana  de- 
scribes an  ancient  procession  of  citizens,  including  "well 
known  goldsmiths";  also  gem-cutters,  weavers,  potters, 
and  ivory-workers.  And  in  the  Harivamsa:  "The 
amphitheater  was  filled  by  the  citizens  anxious  to  behold 
the  games.  The  pavilions  of  the  different  companies 
and  corporations,  vast  as  mountains,  were  decorated 
with  banners  bearing  upon  them  the  implements  and 
emblems  of  the  several  crafts." 


158  THE  FREE  CITY 

The  Kashmir  community  was  also  —  the  fame  still 
survives  —  in  much  repute  for  grace  of  woolen  work; 
a  sense  for  line  and  color  on  the  part  of  her  weavers,  and 
a  deft  touch  of  hand.  Lawrence,  writing  of  the  E^shmir 
Valley,  tells  the  secret:  In  the  old  days,  says  he,  the 
public  authorities  "exercised  a  rigorous  supervision  over 
the  quality  of  the  raw  material  and  the  manufactured 
article.  In  the  good  days  of  the  shawl  trade  no  spurious 
wool  was  brought  in  to  be  mixed  with  the  real  shawl  wool 
of  Central  Asia;  and  woe  betide  the  weaver  who  did  bad 
work,  or  the  silversmith  who  was  too  Uberal  with  his 
alloy.  There  is  no  such  supervision  nowadays.  Com- 
petition has  lowered  prices;  and  the  real  masters  of 
weaving,  silver  and  copperwork  have  to  bend  to  the  time 
and  supply  their  customers  with  cheap  inferior  work." 

The  communes  of  the  East  prove  it;  the  conmiunes  of 
the  classic  Mediterranean  period  prove  it;  the  communes 
of  the  Gothic  era  prove  it:  in  fellowship  alone  stands  in- 
dustrial freedom.  Whose  poUtical  form  is  mimicipality. 
And  whose  product  is  beauty.  "Two  are  better  than 
one;  because  they  have  a  good  reward  for  their  labor. 
For  if  they  fall,  the  one  will  lift  up  his  fellow.  Again, 
if  two  lie  together,  then  they  have  heat;  but  how  can 
one  be  warm  alone?  And  if  one  prevail  against  him, 
two  shall  withstand;  and  a  threefold  cord  is  not  quickly 
broken." 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  AFTERGLOW 

GOTHIC  art  is  pre-eminently  characterized  by  a 
law  of  liberty.  Ruskin's  sure  intuition  made  this 
discoveiy.  But  he  did  not  connect  that  hberty 
with  the  industrial  and  poHtical  life  of  the  period.  Gothic 
art  is  emancipated  art,  because  the  workmen  who  wrought 
it,  secure  behind  the  moats  and  ramparts  of  Free  Cities, 
were  no  longer  fearful  of  their  hege  lord's  displeasure. 

Every  land  is  a  holy  land,  where  freedom  has  her  habi- 
tat. Those  Medieval  commonwealths  were  the  offspring 
of  a  rehgious  revival,  the  Crusades;  and  were  themselves 
the  continuation  of  that  revival.  The  guilds  had  each  its 
patron  saint,  and  usually  a  church  that  it  regarded  as  its 
home.  In  Cologne,  neighboring  the  great  cathedral, 
stands  a  smaller  church;  tradition  says  that  this  humbler 
edifice  was  built  by  the  workmen  during  their  rest  hours, 
while  working  on  the  large  building.  At  Lincoln,  Eng- 
land, we  find  the  painters,  gilders,  stainers,  and  alabaster 
men  organized  into  the  Guild  of  St.  Luke.  They  cele- 
brated the  feast  day  of  that  saint  each  year  with  a  common 
dinner,  "for  love  and  amity  and  good  communication  to 
be  had  for  the  several  weal  of  the  fraternity."  For  a 
labor  union  nowadays  to  call  itself  after  a  Saint,  center 
its  life  around  a  church,  and  conduct  its  meetings  with 
prayer  and  ritual,  would  excite  world  comment.     In  the 

Gothic  era  it  was  regarded  as  the  natural  thing.    The 

159 


160  THE  FREE  CITY 

Free  City  was  their  religion.  The  religion  of  citizenship 
i*?  but  another  way  of  saying,  devout  handicraftsmen: 
the  marriage  of  worship  and  labor. 

To-day  an  architect  shuts  himself  in  an  oflSce,  and  the 
"hands"  out  in  the  stoneyard  and  on  the  building  carr} 
but  his  plannings.  In  that  day  the  architect  was  simply 
the  master-workman;  he  toiled  on  the  scaffold  along 
with  his  men;  and  those  masterpieces  of  architecture  are 
the  result.  To-day  a  trophy  cup  is  designed  by  an  "ex- 
pert." The  drawing  is  then  passed  upon  by  the  "super- 
visors of  art."  Then  it  is  given  to  the  "operatives"  to 
shape  into  metal.  The  result  is  the  mediocrity  we 
modems  behold:  a  shiny  vessel  of  silver,  quite  excellent 
as  a  sample  of  machine  burnishing;  but  devoid  of  quaint- 
ness  or  strength  or  character.  To-day,  people  work  at 
their  worship.  In  that  day  people  worshipped  at  their 
work. 

In  the  Gothic  period  the  workman  was  his  own  de- 
signer. Every  producer  was  an  educated  producer.  He 
was  a  civic  laborer,  a  pubUc-spirited  mechanic.  In  the 
product  of  his  hands  the  honor  of  the  municipaUty  re- 
posed. Poor  workmanship  would  have  disgraced  the 
state,  of  which  he  was  a  constituent  and  enthusiastic 
member.  The  modem  cleavage  between  "manuals" 
and  "intellectuals"  would  have  seemed  to  them  incom- 
prehensible. The  village  carpenter  was  also  a  wood 
carver.  The  oak  screens  of  that  day,  with  that  sinuous 
linaa-fold  pattern  now  treasured  in  museums,  was  the 
work  of  day-laborers;  hkewise  the  furniture,  wain- 
scotting,  pulpits,  and  stalls  in  the  churches;  and  the 
carved  oak  panellings  in  the  houses. 

Nowadays  a  lock  or  hinge  of  the  Middle  Age,  rusty 
perhaps  and  with  the  wood  crumbling  away,  is  cherished 
under  glass  cases;  the  rugged  grace  of  it  and  the  magical 


THE  AFTERGLOW  161 

trait  of  humanness  that  was  forged  into  it,  give  it  a 
preciousness  beyond  gold  and  silver.  That  iron  work 
was  the  output  of  the  village  blacksmith.  In  forging 
a  door  bolt  or  grating,  he  was  not  a  subaltern  blindly 
following  a  blueprint  drawn  by  some  absent  designer. 
That  blacksmith  was  one  of  the  citizen-owners  of  the 
commonwealth.  In  working  for  the  fame  of  his  city  he 
was  working  for  the  dearest  possession  of  his  life.  Not 
only  his  pair  of  arms;  his  soul  too  was  engaged  at  that 
anvil.  In  hammering  the  iron  into  shape,  he  was  ex- 
pressing his  vision  of  life.  So  he  wrought  joyously. 
Iron  assumed  amazing  ductility.  In  the  hand  of  the 
locksmith  the  toughest  metals  took  on  submissiveness. 
Amid  soot  and  cinders  the  burly  ironsmith  put  into  his 
product  a  tender  craftsmanship  and  delicacy  of  taste. 

It  was,  I  say,  a  rehgious  revival.  An  age  of  genius. 
Conventionahty  was  frowned  upon.  Spontaneity  was 
everything.  There  is  no  absolute  symmetry  in  Gothic 
art  —  that  is  why  it  is  art.  If  they  put  two  balancing 
steeples  on  a  church,  one  of  them  was  sure  to  be  higher 
than  the  other.  Small  windows  pierced  where  con- 
venience dictated.  Rules  of  formalized  procedure  were 
cast  to  the  winds :  let  the  workman  express  himseK  at  all 
hazards.  And  this  absence  of  orderliness  proved  to  be 
the  highest  orderliness.  The  fact  that  they  were  all 
working  to  a  common  end  —  the  Commune's  glory  — 
gave  to  their  separate  doings  a  wizardry  of  unification. 
These  toilers  were  not  individualists,  they  were  com- 
munaUsts.  So,  private  whims  and  fads  and  eccentrici- 
ties did  not  emerge.  They  could  trust  each  man  to  work 
under  his  own  soul's  dictation;  because  the  soul  within 
him  was  the  PubUc  Soul,  overruling  his  private  thought 
to  the  social  good. 

Sometimes  this  freedom  had  most  unconventional  re- 


162  THE  FREE  CITY 

suits;  as  the  "bestiaries."  At  Chartres  Cathedral  one 
of  the  stone  workers,  wishing  to  make  his  contribution, 
carved  the  statue  of  a  jackass  playing  a  l3rre.  A  modern 
Building  Committee  would  sternly  reject  such  an  offer- 
ing, as  something  sacrilegious.  But  Chartres  did  not 
reject  it.  A  droUerie?  yes.  But  it  was  the  best  that 
this  particular  workman  could  contrive;  it  was  his  origi- 
nal contribution.  Therefore  it  was  accepted  and  given 
an  honorable  place  in  the  structure.  And  —  so  holy  is 
the  heart  of  a  workingman  when  expressing  itself  un- 
fettered —  that  Donkey-playing-the-lyre  blends  without 
note  of  dissonance  in  one  of  the  most  holy  and  successful 
pieces  of  architecture  our  planet  can  boast.  In  city 
conmionwealths  life  is  picturesque.  The  charm  of  those 
Gothic  towns  is  the  human  hberty  that  presided  over 
their  building.  Houses  niche  themselves  at  unexpected 
places  in  the  street.  Original  thought  starts  forth  at 
every  corner  to  surprise  one.  The  whole  fabric  is  quaint 
with  naive  unconventional  conceits. 

Henry  Adams'  "Mount  St.  Michel"  is  rich  in  illustra- 
tion of  this  Gothic  splendor.  We  owe  that  book  to  Ralph 
Adams  Cram,  who  of  all  Uving  artists  incarnates  the 
spirit  of  that  God-intoxicated  era  most  perfectly.  I 
quote  from  those  pages  an  account  of  the  constructing  of 
that  cathedral  at  Chartres.  Bishop  Hugo,  observing  the 
community  at  work,  reported:  "The  inhabitants  of 
Chartres  have  combined  to  aid  in  the  construction  of 
their  church  by  transporting  the  materials.  They  admit 
no  one  into  their  company  unless  he  has  been  to  confes- 
sion, has  renounced  enmity  and  revenges,  and  has  recon- 
ciled himself  with  his  foes.  That  done,  they  elect  a  chief, 
under  whose  direction  they  conduct  their  wagons  in 
silence  and  with  humihty."  The  quarries  were  more 
than  five  miles  away.     Some  of  the  blocks  of  stone  were 


THE  AFTERGLOW  163 

massive;  and,  except  by  mass  action  on  a  large  scale, 
could  not  have  been  handled.  In  a  letter  to  Tutbury 
Abbey  in  England,  Abbot  Haimon  also  described  that 
spectacle  of  nobles  and  burghers  toiling  hand  in  hand: 

"Who  has  ever  seen,  who  has  ever  heard  tell  in  times 
past,  that  men  brought  up  in  honor  and  wealth,  that 
nobles  —  men  and  women  —  have  bent  their  haughty 
necks  to  the  harness  of  carts,  and  that  like  beasts  of 
burden  they  have  dragged  to  the  abode  of  Christ  these 
wagons,  loaded  with  wines,  grains,  oil,  stone,  wood,  and  all 
that  is  necessary  for  the  wants  of  life  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  church.  Often  when  a  thousand  persons  are 
attached  to  the  chariot  —  so  great  is  the  difficulty  —  yet 
they  march  in  such  silence  that  not  a  murmur  is  heard. 
When  they  halt  on  the  road,  nothing  is  heard  but  pure 
and  suppliant  prayer.  They  forget  all  hatred;  discord 
is  thrown  far  aside;  debts  are  remitted;  the  unity  of 
hearts  is  established.  But  if  anyone  is  so  far  advanced 
in  evil  as  to  be  unwilling  to  pardon  an  offender,  his  of- 
fering is  instantly  thrown  from  the  wagon  as  impure; 
and  he  himself  shamefully  excluded  from  the  society  of 
the  holy.  When  they  have  reached  the  church,  they 
arrange  the  wagons  about  it  like  a  spiritual  camp;  and 
during  the  whole  night  they  celebrate  by  hymns  and 
canticles.  On  each  wagon  they  light  tapers  and  lamps. 
Afterwards  the  priests  close  the  ceremony  by  processions 
which  the  people  follow  with  devout  hearts." 

Every  important  community  in  England  and  France 
and  Germany  and  Spain  and  Italy  was  now  building  its 
cathedral  or  town  hall;  in  healthy  emulation  to  make 
their  building  more  sumptuous  and  grand  than  the  one  in 
the  neighboring  commune.  This  was  the  age  of  poetry. 
Hans  Sachs  the  cobbler,  and  his  Meistersingers  at  Nurem- 
burg;    the   Niebelungen    Lied;    the   Cid;    the   Arthur 


164  THE  FREE  CITY 

Legends;  minnesingers  and  troubadours.  Arnolfo  was 
building  the  duomo  at  Florence,  with  Ghiberti  assisting 
and  Dante  looking  on.  Not  only  were  these  major  arts 
flourishing.  The  minor  arts  also  contributed  their  quota. 
Bell  founders  cast  their  metal  with  an  alloy  that  retains 
its  tone  better  perhaps  than  any  bells  man  has  been 
able  to  cast  since.  The  stained  windows  show  secrets  of 
glass-working  that  now  are  lost.  Needlework  attained 
much  deftness.  Missals  were  richly  illuminated.  The 
guild  towns  of  Flanders  were  producing  music  masters  for 
all  the  rest  of  Europe.  Universities  sprang  up;  impulse 
that  started  the  scientific  era,  and  which  has  come  to 
its  blossoming  only  in  our  day.  In  that  period  the 
universities  of  Oxford,  Paris,  and  Bologna  were  laying  their 
foundations.  Venetian  glass,  and  the  piazza  of  San 
Marco,  were  making  that  island  RepubUc  world-famous. 
Bruges  and  Ghent  and  Louvain  were  erecting  those  civic 
structures  now  so  notable  a  feature  of  the  Low  Country. 
Nuremburg  was  building  her  burgher  homes;  that  ex- 
panse of  gables,  in  all  the  naivete  and  charm  of  affection- 
ate workmanship.  Florence  with  her  loggia  was  no  whit 
behind.  Decidedly,  the  Dark  Ages  were  at  an  end.  The 
sun  of  municipality  was  arisen,  and  had  vanished  the  old 
sad  night.  The  most  luminous  day  man's  history  had 
seen,  since  the  Mediterranean  Communes  a  thousand 
years  before. 

Of  that  Gothic  day  of  blaze  and  power,  the  Renais- 
sance was  the  sunset;  a  parting  outburst,  as  the  shining 
light  disappeared  below  the  horizon.  Like  many  a  sunset, 
the  Renaissance  was  in  some  ways  more  gorgeous  than 
had  been  the  noonday.  By  its  very  excess  of  heat  the 
noon  sun  consumes  away  all  mist,  and  shines  with  a 
power  unrecognized  because  the  heat  is  converted  directly 
into  the  fructifying  energy  of  the  soil.    In  its  going  down. 


THE  AFTERGLOW  165 

the  sun  is  not  so  vivifying  a  presence;  and  for  that  reason 
is  often  more  showy.  The  lessening  warmth  has 
permitted  vapors  to  condense  into  cloud  formation; 
which  now  reflect  the  rays  of  the  sun  into  figures  and 
overpowering  color  masses.  An  ensemble  of  such  names 
as  Leonardo,  Michael  Angelo,  Benvenuto,  the  Delia 
Robbias,  Lippo  Lippi,  Donatello,  Andrea  del  Sarto, 
Bartolomeo,  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  Holbeins,  Velasquez, 
Murillo,  sparkles  with  a  splendor  not  often  witnessed  by 
our  Uttle  Earth  at  one  and  the  same  time. 

Despite  the  spectacular  beauty  of  it,  however,  the 
Renaissance  was  truly  an  age  of  decline.  This  is  notice- 
able in  its  architecture.  As  to  painting  and  sculpture, 
these  arts  are  conservative  in  their  underlying  principles; 
can  carry  over  into  one  age  the  power  that  had  been  ac- 
cumulated in  the  age  that  had  gone  before.  But  archi- 
tecture is  the  social  art,  and  is  quickly  responsive  to  a 
new  temper  in  society.  Gothic  architecture  had  sub- 
ordinated every  part  to  the  whole.  Because  the  Gothic 
builders  were  citizens;  that  is,  they  had  lost  their  ego- 
isms in  devotion  to  the  commonwealth.  Each  incorpo- 
rated his  lesser  plan  in  the  master  dream.  To  sustain 
the  fortunes  of  their  city,  had  been  their  soUcitude. 
Subordinating  all  things  to  municipal  success,  they  took 
no  shame  to  work  in  lowly  tasks.  In  their  building,  this 
quaUty  crops  out.  No  matter  how  bewildering  a  wealth 
of  detail,  the  parts  possess  a  mystic  affinity  with  each 
other  and  with  the  whole;  all  redundancy  pruned  away. 

Not  so.  Renaissance  architecture.  The  Gothic  spirit 
of  citizenship  was  now  decaying.  That  is  another  way 
of  saying,  private  wishings  bulked  larger  than  communal 
glory.  Individualism  supplanted  municipahsm.  Men 
became  proud  in  heart.  The  work  of  man's  hand  was 
not  long  in  betraying  the  change.    Architecture  lost  its 


166  THE  FREE  CITY 

dignity;  went  off  into  meaningless  ornamentation;  vol- 
uptuous, ornate,  excessive.  The  Gothic  had  decorated 
construction;  Renaissance  builders  constructed  decora- 
tion. At  first  the  change  was  slight;  so  that  early  Re- 
naissance architecture  is  still  restrained  and  simplified. 
But  a  new  temper  has  seated  itself  deep  in  the  crowd- 
mass;  both  gentlemen  and  artisans  are  sunk  in  pleasure. 
So  the  architecture  exhibits  a  progressive  decadence. 
Details  of  a  building  are  amplified  for  their  own  sake. 
Selfishness  —  the  accentuation  of  the  parts  of  society 
against  the  whole  —  had  gained  the  dominion.  And  art, 
which  is  always  a  reflex  of  the  social  temper,  went  off  in 
the  same  centrifugal  dispersion.  The  Renaissance  was 
morally  bankrupt;  and  declares  this  fact,  in  the  pre- 
dominance of  horizontal  lines  over  the  vertical.  There 
was  a  loss  of  truth  and  vitality.  In  a  chaos  of  whim- 
sicalities, unity  disappeared. 

What  was  the  cause:  Commercialism;  another  way  of 
saying,  big  states  began  to  supplant  the  small  city  com- 
monwealths. Frontiers  permit  the  people  to  regulate  the 
money-makers.  So  the  money-makers  contrived  huge 
national  aggregates  wherein  frontiers  were  obliterated. 
Then  the  commercially-minded  had  uninterrupted  sway. 
The  commercial  spirit  signifies  private  advantage.  The 
Gothic  spirit  had  emphasized  communal  advantage. 
Arising  as  a  protest  against  the  individualist  temper  of 
the  Dark  Ages,  those  Communes  had  enshrined  the 
principle  of  association.  And  we  saw  what  a  bright  il- 
lumination that  fire  of  fellowship  kindled.  Those  folk 
were  not  egos;  they  were  citizens. 

But  selfish  men  crept  in.  As  it  happened  in  that 
classic  era  we  reviewed,  so  again  it  came  to  pass.  The 
artist  soul  is  gentle-minded,  tender,  unsuspecting.  The 
more  artist  he,  the  more  is  he  childhke.    Jesus  loved  this 


THE  AFTERGLOW  167 

type;  said  that  he  was  going  to  establish  a  common- 
wealth where  this  type  would  feel  at  home:  "Except  ye 
become  as  little  children,  ye  cannot  enter  the  kingdom." 
The  workers  in  his  day  were  being  exploited  by  cold 
calculating  men  of  affairs.  They  were  as  sheep  not  hav- 
ing a  shepherd.  That  is  why  he  made  himself  their 
shepherd.  In  getting  between  them  and  the  wolves,  he 
was  gnashed  upon  by  their  ravening  teeth,  was  torn  to 
pieces. 

When  the  Gothic  communes  were  in  vigorous  life, 
commercialists  were  unknown;  meaning  by  that  term, 
a  middleman  between  producer  and  consumer.  The 
guildsmen  were-  their  own  merchants.  The  guilds  had 
a  salaried  agent  to  act  for  them  in  disposing  of  their 
product.  So  there  existed  a  closeness  of  tie  between  the 
maker  of  an  article,  and  the  user.  Work  was  largely 
home  industry,  for  a  home  market.  This  neighborliness 
of  relation  put  personality  into  the  product.  Because 
the  maker  of  it  was  known,  he  was  determined  to  be  favor- 
ably known;  he  turned  out  an  article  that  he  could  per- 
sonally stand  behind.  A  remnant  of  this  personalized 
product  was  seen  even  as  late  as  our  grandfathers'  day: 
the  Ditson  saw,  the  Buck  chisel,  Wade-and-Butcher 
razor,  the  Torrey  strop.  In  the  contrary  direction,  be- 
cause the  user  of  the  article  was  known  to  the  maker,  he 
wished  to  be  on  relations  of  honorabihty  with  that 
maker;  gave  him  as  a  remuneration  for  his  labor  a  price 
that  was  just.  It  was  a  mental  atmosphere  that  made 
right  dealing  between  man  and  man  habitual. 

Then  came  the  commerciahzer.  With  clever  excuses 
he  horned  in  between  the  maker  and  the  user.  Any 
elaboration  of  trade  apparatus  in  the  conveyance  of  an 
article  from  producer  to  consumer  depersonahzes  it,  and 
therefore  bestiaUzes  it.    This  the  commerciaUst  did.    He 


168  THE  FREE  CITY 

established  himself  on  an  independent  footing;  buying 
the  article  outright  from  the  maker.  Necessarily  his 
gain  depended  on  paying  the  maker  a  small  price,  and 
charging  the  user  a  large  price.  In  modern  parlance,  he 
paid  the  worker  "a  Uving  wage";  and  to  the  consumer 
"charged  what  the  traffic  will  bear." 

A  depersonaUzed  product  is  always  an  inartistic  prod- 
uct. Plato  saw  the  evil  t'hat  is  inherent  in  a  commercial 
ordering  of  society.  In  his  ideal  state  he  laid  it  down 
that  conmierce  was  to  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  In 
the  Bible  we  saw  that  Solomon,  he  of  the  commercial 
instinct,  was  the  disrupter  of  the  state.  That  visit  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  paid  him  was  at  bottom  a  merchandizing 
affair.  Each  made  "gifts"  to  the  other;  seeing  to  it 
that  one  got  in  return  as  much  as  one  "gave."  Solomon, 
seeking  to  degrade  the  Israelites  into  peddlers  of  ivory, 
apes,  and  peacocks,  is  not  reckoned  in  the  gallery  of 
spiritual  heroes.  Jesus  never  refers  to  Solomon  except 
with  an  innuendo  of  contempt.  The  prophets  would  not 
permit  an  alliance  with  the  "merchants  of  Tyre."  And  in 
the  Book  of  Revelation,  the  burning  of  Rome  evoked  a 
shout  of  exultation.  Because  the  Roman  Empire  was  a 
commercial  form  of  society:  "The  merchants  of  the  earth 
are  waxed  rich  through  the  abundance  of  her  delicacies." 

The  commercializing  of  the  Gothic  Communes  began 
with  the  wholesalers.  These  would  buy  up  a  shipload  of 
provisions,  or  the  entire  supply  of  a  caravan.  Banding 
together,  they  became  stronger  than  the  commune;  for 
these  speculators  were  alert,  whilst  the  people  fell  asleep. 
To  these  mercantile  adventurers  now  swollen  with  power, 
the  regulations  that  were  issued  by  town  council  and  guild 
were  as  cobwebs  in  the  path  of  a  bumble  bee.  Roman 
law,  in  the  form  it  took  in  the  Empire  days,  sided  with 
these  magnates  in  their  seK-assertion.    In  early  Rome, 


THE  AFTERGLOW  169 

law  had  made  much  of  public  property,  had  discouraged 
private  property.  In  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  the 
taking  of  interest  was  forbidden  by  statutory  enactment. 
But  with  the  coming  of  the  Empire,  Roman  law  had 
more  and  more  come  to  teach  the  theory  of  absolutely 
private  possessions.  In  Justinian's  code  it  is  expressly 
pointed  out:  "In  purchase  and  sale  it  is  naturally  al- 
lowed to  try  to  overreach  each  other."  "Overreaching" 
was  now  organized  into  a  system,  to  overthrow  the 
Gothic  municipalities. 

The  conmiunes  did  not  surrender  without  a  fight.  The 
struggle  between  the  old  communahstic  form  of  industry, 
and  the  new  nationalist-commercial  spirit,  lasted  for  over 
a  century.  The  story  of  it,  in  The  Netherlands  for  ex- 
ample, has  added  brilliant  chapters  to  the  story  of  human 
heroism.'  The  contest  was  political.  The  nobles,  when 
the  communes  were  first  arising,  would  allow  none  of 
their  members  to  fraternize  with  the  upstart  burghers. 
But  when  some  of  these  burghers  began  to  accumulate 
riches,  the  knightly  order  decreed  that  "for  the  support 
of  an  ancient  and  honorable  line,"  a  noble  could  marry 
a  burgher's  daughter,  provided  she  brought  him  a  dowry 
of  at  least  four  thousand  florins.  From  that  began  a 
rapprochement  between  the  nobiUty  and  the  commercial 
magnates. 

By  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  rich  can 
be  seen  lining  up  in  class  cleavage  against  the  "poor  folk, 
and  others  of  mean  estate."  Constantly  this  demarca- 
tion between  the  "great  men"  —  the  majores,  the 
DiviTATEs  —  and  the  "lesser  folk"  —  the  minores/  pau- 
PERES,  PLEBEi  —  became  more  sharp.  Charles  V  took 
sides  with  the  magnate  class  against  the  commons.  He 
encouraged  Antwerp,  the  stronghold  of  materiaUsm,  to 
usurp  the  place  of  leadership  formerly  held  by  beautiful 


170  THE  FREE  CITY 

Bruges.  Antwerp  became  thereupon  the  master  city 
of  the  world.  From  there  as  a  center,  a  trading  class 
of  nomads  wandered  feverishly  up  and  down  the  world, 
in  search  of  the  large  fortunes  that  a  few  men  were  amas- 
sing. These  were  men  without  a  home  or  ancestors  or 
family  traditions;  unscrupulous  buccaneers  eager  to 
acquire  wealth.  The  Free  Cities  walled  their  gates 
against  the  new  spirit;  but  the  gates  were  battered  down. 
Rather  than  be  conquered  by  the  King  of  Spain  and  these 
magnates,  the  Low  Country  opened  the  dykes  and  flooded 
the  landscape.  Notable  is  that  page,  in  the  chronicles  of 
freedom.  When  Charles  V  destroyed  the  communal 
government  of  Ghent  and  turned  it  into  a  capitalistic 
center,  he  decreed  that  "Roland,"  the  big  bell  in  the 
town  belfry,  must  be  taken  down.  He  was  afraid  of  that 
communal  tintinnabulation;  its  power  to  stir  remembrances 
of  associated  action  and  civic  Hberty. 

The  collapse  of  Free  Cities  saw  the  decline  in  morals 
that  characterized  the  Renaissance  generally.  Machia- 
velli  now  became  the  lawgiver  in  the  realm  of  right  and 
wrong.  Dante  was  superseded  in  Florence  by  Boccaccio 
and  his  ladies  of  the  Decameron.  This  was  the  age  too 
of  Cesare  Borgia,  Cellini,  and  Aretino.  Compare  these 
with  those  folk  of  the  Gothic  time.  Giotto,  master 
mason  of  Florence  and  one  of  the  world's  supreme  archi- 
tects, was  a  devotee  of  the  Franciscan  order.  This 
premier  artist  of  the  Middle  Age  represented  Cupid  as 
one  of  an  infernal  trinity,  the  other  two  being  Satan  and 
Death.  The  Renaissance  artists  pictured  the  love  god 
as  near  akin  to  angels;  a  love  deity,  furthermore,  whose 
favorite  abode  was  with  the  opulent.  Spenser's  picture 
of  Gluttony  is  a  witness  too  of  this  new  pleasure-mad  era, 
supporting  its  riot  of  extravagance  by  pillaging  the 
toilers: 


THE  AFTERGLOW  171 

His  belly  was  upbhwne  with  luxury; 
And  eke  with  fatness  swollen  were  his  eyne. 
And  like  a  crane  his  neck  was  long  and  fine; 
Wherewith  he  swallowed  up  excessive  feast; 
For  want  whereof,  poor  people  oft  did  pine. 

Rome  during  her  municipal  era  had  reverenced  the 
virtue  of  women.  We  saw  Athens  enthroning  Pallas 
Athena  as  the  virgin  goddess  of  the  state.  In  Israel  the 
designation  "strange  women"  indicates  that  the  red 
light  district  in  Jerusalem  could  find  only  foreign  women 
for  its  victims.  Paris  to-day  is  the  seat  of  a  commercial 
civilization;  and  would  not  be  pointed  out  as  a  place 
oversensitive  in  morals.  But  in  the  Paris  of  the  Gothic 
period  there  was  a  certain  wool-weaver  whose  relations 
with  a  woman  were  loose.  He  "was  sent  out  of  the  city 
and  forbidden  the  trade,  until  he  should  amend  his 
character."  An  artistic  civiHzation  is  a  healthy-hearted 
society.  A  commercial  era,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  time 
of  ethical  decay. 

I  do  not  mean  to  paint  the  picture  all  high  light  and 
black  shade.  Those  Mediterranean  communes  were  not 
perfect,  in  morals  or  aught  else;  and  the  Gothic  common- 
wealths likewise  had  many  a  flaw.  But  in  the  large, 
history  reveals  a  finer  sex  morality  in  municipal  states 
than  in  the  huge  aggregates  known  as  nations  and  em- 
pires. Self-government  works  in  the  people  a  cleanness 
of  spirit;  they  have  scant  leisure  for  baseness.  Free  and 
creative  toil  breeds  a  people  that  turn  every  thought  into 
self-expression.  It  is  when  those  higher  vents  are  clogged, 
man  pursues  in  forbidden  pathways  the  gratification  that 
normal  life  had  denied  him.  In  the  first  church  in  Venice, 
this  was  lettered:  "Around  this  temple,  let  the  mer- 
chant's law  be  just,  his  weights  true,  and  his  contracts 
guileless."     In  the   Renaissance,   this   Venice   commune 


172  THE  FREE  CITY 

changed  into  a  narrow  oligarchy,  whose  only  thought 
was  commercial  empire;  and  the  orgies  of  the  people  in 
Venice  became  notorious.  When  joy  withers  away,  man 
seeks  to  fill  its  place  with  pleasure. 

At  the  close  of  the  day,  the  sunset.  At  the  close  of 
the  sunset,  the  afterglow.  Since  the  Gothic  era,  have 
followed  six  centuries  of  slow  decline.  Here  and  there 
have  been  outbursts  of  power.  But  these  have  been 
spasmodic,  and  in  large  part  imitative.  An  afterglow  is 
ofttimes  so  ht  up  that  people  walk  in  it  with  scarce  a 
reahzation  that  the  Ught  is  a  reflection  and  not  the  shin- 
ing of  the  sun.  Moderns  are  hving  contentedly  in  this 
reflected  light,  heedless  of  the  fact  that  the  sun  has  set 
and  that  the  Ught  must  by  Uttle  and  Uttle  fade.  Shake- 
speare and  the  spacious  times  of  EUzabeth,  were  the 
splendid  outburst  prepared  by  the  Gothic  day  in  England. 
The  age  of  Cervantes  in  Spain  was  the  afterglow  of  her 
Gothic  period;  bringing  her  to  that  day  of  climax,  when 
Spain  extended  from  Naples  and  Milan  to  The  Nether- 
lands, and  to  the  New  World.  The  energy  of  the  Middle 
Age  gathered  to  a  meridian  splendor  about  the  year  1300. 
Since  that  time,  in  the  matter  of  original  creative  power, 
Christendom  has  traced  slowly  a  descending  curve;  the 
dying  out  of  genius,  and  its  replacement  by  talent. 

We  moderns  have  been  kept  going  by  a  survival  also 
from  another  age  than  the  Gothic  —  the  Bible.  That 
Book,  we  saw,  is  the  story  of  perhaps  the  most  intense 
city-worship  in  all  history.  So  long  as  it  retained  the 
mysticism  with  which  it  was  originally  endowed,  great 
was  the  power  of  the  Scriptures  to  evoke  in  man  a  public 
spirit;  a  zest  of  freedom:  Home  rule,  as  Heaven's  first 
commandment.  Luther  was  a  lover  of  the  Bible.  The 
movement  he  originated  was  at  bottom  a  revival  of 
local  feeling.    It  was  "Peter's  Pence"  that  started  him 


THE  AFTERGLOW  173 

on  his  break  with  the  Papal  Empire;  the  taking  of  Ger- 
man coin  to  build  St.  Peter's  church  in  far-away  Rome. 
Calvin  was  spurred  by  that  Book  to  transform  Geneva 
into  a  theocratic  republic.  John  Leyden  sought  to  make 
Miinster  over  into  a  "Kingdom  of  Zion";  the  entire 
Anabaptist  movement  tended  toward  local  autonomy, 
under  the  rule  of  Heaven  alone;  as  at  Utrecht  and  Am- 
sterdam. Knox  was  ardent  to  make  Scotland  a  theocracy, 
Uke  Israel  of  old.  The  Pilgrims,  hugging  that  Book  to 
their  bosoms,  founded  in  New  England  a  theocratic 
commonwealth;  from  which  came  the  town  meeting, 
foimtain  of  no  small  part  of  America's  political  life. 

The  revolvings  of  the  calendar  are  wheeUng  us  far  and 
further  from  Palestine  in  her  municipal  prime.  But  the 
Bible,  into  which  she  poured  her  spirit,  is  charged  with 
so  high  a  voltage  that  even  yet  we  get  from  it  intermittent 
gleams  of  revival,  dim-flashing  hke  boreal  lights  above 
our  darkening  era.  Could  that  Book  have  retained  its 
power  permanently,  unmolested  by  Higher  Criticism's 
rationalizing  touch,  modernity  might  have  struggled 
along  for  some  centuries  yet,  living  on  borrowed  Ught. 


CHAPTER  Xin 

WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING 

THERE  are  five  manners  of  political  fabric.  The 
first  is  that  wherein  the  individual  is  the  seat  of 
government;  this  is  the  savage  state  —  anarch- 
ism, egotocracy.  The  second  is  when  the  family  is  the 
seat  of  the  government;  oligarchy  is  its  name;  with 
feudahsm  as  the  type  of  society  it  generates.  The  third 
is  when  the  community  is  the  seat  of  government;  this 
form  is  known  as  democracy.  The  fourth  manner  of 
fabric  is  that  wherein  the  nation  is  the  seat  of  the  gov- 
ernment; known  as  plutocracy  —  rule  by  the  rich,  of 
the  rich,  and  for  the  rich.  The  fifth,  is  when  the  world 
is  the  seat  of  the  government;  known  as  autocracy,  a 
world-chieftain  swaying  all  mankind. 

In  one  of  those  five  units  the  sovereignty  must  repose. 
Social  Science  does  not  think  in  terms  of  these  five  units. 
That  is  because  it  does  not  think  at  all.  Social  Science 
is  an  emotionalism;  a  sentimental  expansion,  quite 
splendid  for  supplying  heat,  but  of  utter  incapacity  for 
supplying  fight.  When  Social  Science  begins  to  think, 
it  becomes  PoUtical  Science.  PoHtical  Science  knows 
that  there  must  be  sovereignty  somewhere;  and  that  the 
choice  of  a  seat  for  that  sovereignty  lies  between  the 
five  units  I  have  mentioned. 

Sovereignty  is  constituted  of  a  threefold  prerogative: 

war-power,  coinage,  and  diplomacy.    That  seems  a  short 

174 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       175 

and  mild  enumeration,  wherewith  to  describe  so  omnipo- 
tent a  thing  as  governmental  omnipotence.  But  that 
threefold  majesty  is  comprehensive.  In  the  realm  of 
physics,  scientists  tell  us  that  there  are  but  three  colors, 
red,  blue,  and  yellow;  all  of  the  other  tints  in  the  spectrum 
being  combinations  of  those  primary  hues.  So,  in  the 
realm  of  jurisprudence,  the  threefold  prerogative  here 
enumerated  confers  mundane  almightinesfe.  A  status  in 
coining  money  regulates  the  relations  between  debtor  and 
creditor,  determines  all  exchanges,  all  material  values; 
gives  control  over  the  life  economic.  A  status  in  de- 
termining foreign  relations,  decides  what  shall  be  the  at- 
titude of  this  autonomous  political  group  toward  the  rest 
of  the  world.  That  third  item,  a  poHtical  status  in  de- 
claring peace  or  war,  is  essential  for  preserving  the  other 
two  prerogatives;  a  community  that  must  fight  at  the 
dictation  of  a  power  outside  of  itself,  turning  over  to  that 
outside  power  control  over  its  armed  forces,  is  not  free 
but  subject.  Coinage,  diplomacy,  war-power  —  these 
are  the  primary  attributes  of  statehood.  And  the  cord 
that  is  twisted  of  them  is  sovereignty. 

Where  shall  this  sovereignty  vest?  The  question  is  the 
most  stupendous  to  which  the  mind  of  man  can  address 
itself.  Until  that  is  settled,  nothing  is  settled.  And 
when  that  is  once  settled,  everything  else  in  earth  and  sea 
and  sky  will  settle  itself.  Shall  the  human  being  give  his 
loyalty  to  himself,  in  preference  to  those  other  four 
claimants?  But  then,  what  would  happen  to  his  family, 
his  community,  his  nation,  his  world?  All  the  problems 
in  ethics,  all  the  perplexities  that  assail  the  mind  and 
tear  the  heart,  are  occasioned  by  these  five  conflicting 
loyalties.  With  that  question  hanging  in  the  air,  the 
man  is  interiorly  dismembered,  is  pulled  apart  by  the 
competing  claims;   so  that  all  of  his  spiritual  bones  are 


176  THE  FREE  CITY 

out  of  joint;  he  is  double-minded,  unstable  in  his  ways; 
is  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven  by  the  wind  and  tossed.  Shall 
the  nation  have  the  sole  right  to  declare  war,  or  shall 
each  individual  decide  that  for  himself?  Which  is  su- 
preme, a  man's  loyalty  to  his  family,  or  to  his  com- 
munity? Business  men  are  answering  it,  "to  his  family." 
Which  answer  accounts  for  much  of  the  ruthlessness  in 
commercial  life.  The  man  grinds  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  other  families,  in  order  that  his  own  son  and  daughter 
may  ride  in  high-powered  chariots.  Many  a  man  is  a 
good  husband  and  a  bad  citizen.  No  small  part  of  the 
revolutionary  heave  now  convulsing  society  is  engendered 
by  the  spectacle  of  one  home  embowered  in  sumptuous- 
ness,  amidst  other  homes  that  are  dismal  huts.  New 
York  City,  for  example  —  an  island  of  woe  divided  by 
an  avenue  of  wealth. 

In  the  collision  between  the  community  and  the  nation, 
there  are  many  who  think  a  compromise  to  be  possible: 
"Let  the  nation  run  the  national  industries,  and  let  the 
community  run  the  community  industries";  by  "na- 
tional industries,"  meaning  interstate  affairs,  such  as 
trunk  railroads.  But  that  word  "interstate"  is  exactly 
the  word  the  advocate  of  local  sovereignty  hkes;  the 
word  "inter-state"  is  a  contradiction  of  terms  in  the 
mouth  of  a  nationalist,  who  believes  that  the  nation  is 
the  state,  that  is,  the  seat  of  the  government.  The  rail- 
road between  New  York  and  Montreal  is  not  one  but  two; 
and  trains  cross  the  frontier  by  treaty  arrangement.  Shall 
this  be  the  case  also  with  railroads  between  New  York 
and  Chicago?  The  municipalist  answers.  Yes.  Free 
Cities  have  universally  insisted  on  rulership  over  the 
highroads  within  their  respective  territories.  In  practice 
the  Free  City  consents  to  treaties  whereby  her  roads  are 
linked  up  to  those  in  adjoining  states.    But  it  never  re- 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING        177 

linquishes  sovereign  rule  over  the  highways  within  her 
frontiers.  And  so,  with  every  other  item  in  what  is 
loosely  termed  "national  industries."  Every  item  in 
life  can  be  interpreted  nationally,  and  also  municipally. 
Street  railways  would  seem  to  be  distinctively  a  local 
affair;  but  one  can  travel  from  New  York  to  Boston  by 
trolley  car.  The  principles  of  federahsm  and  of  national- 
ism are  in  square  collision. 

And  so,  throughout  all  the  area  of  man's  life.  We 
shall  never  enjoy  an  organized  existence  until  one  of 
these  five  claimants,  and  the  right  one,  is  enthroned 
above  the  other  four.  Five  courts  of  concurrent  juris- 
diction, each  claiming  the  last  appeal,  form  a  hydra 
in  government;  produce  confusion  worse  confounded. 
These  contending  loyalties  wrench  a  high-souled  man 
apart;  leave  him  a  dislocated  spirit;  clog  the  motions 
of  his  will  so  that  he  goes  with  faltering  step.  One  of 
the  five  has  got  to  be  supreme,  and  the  other  four 
dutifully  subordinate. 

It  will  be  noticed  that,  of  the  five,  the  community  oc- 
cupies the  central  place.  To  the  left  of  it  are  to  be  found 
the  family  and  the  individual;  to  the  right,  the  nation 
and  the  world  —  a  teeter-board,  balancing  at  the  middle. 
That  is  the  psychological  mid-point;  let  a  man  climb 
from  the  ego-status  up  into  community-consciousness,  and 
he  is  spiritually  half-way  towards  world-consciousness. 
To  that  center,  points  the  omnipotent  finger  of  God.  Be- 
cause it  is  the  natural  center.  The  municipal  republic  — 
a  conamunity  of  people  occupying  their  plot  of  earth  in 
sovereignty  —  is  the  pohtical  establishment  that  people 
fall  into  when  left  to  themselves.  It  is  the  normal  econ- 
omy. Rome  and  Athens  and  Israel,  the  industrial  com- 
munes of  India,  were  not  contrived  by  men  expert  in 
political  science.     It  was  the  easiest  way  of  organizing 


178  THE  FREE  CITY 

the  life  of  man.    Later  on  came  an  Aristotle,  who  took 

up  the  matter  into  thought  and  explained  it  to  itself. 
But  the  commune  of  Athens  had  endured  long  prior  to 
Aristotle  and  his  justification  of  that  form  of  society. 
Nations,  on  the  other  hand,  are  a  conscious  fabrication, 
deliberately  devised  by  a  junta  of  men  who  had  some- 
thing privately  to  gain  thereby.  The  only  reason  for 
the  wiping  out  of  small  frontiers  and  the  formation  of 
huge  nationalist  fabrics,  is  commercial  profit.  Munic- 
ipalities, on  the  other  hand,  form  themselves  when  life 
is  Hved  according  to  the  natural  fitness  of  things.  An 
Indian  poetess,  quoted  by  Maine,  likens  the  settlement  of 
India  to  the  "flowing  of  the  juice  of  the  sugar  cane  over 
a  flat  surface;  the  juice  crystallizes,  and  the  crystals  are 
the  various  village  communities.  In  the  middle  is  one 
lump  of  particularly  fine  sugar;  the  place  where  is  the 
temple  of  the  god." 

That  left  arm  of  the  teeter-board,  made  up  of  the 
family  and  the  individual,  is  known  in  Pohtical  Science 
as  the  party  of  the  Left;  it  is  the  radical  wing,  clamors  for 
human  rights,  defends  the  popular  cause,  is  restive  and 
fiery  and  innovative.  The  opposite  arm,  made  up  of  the 
nation  (the  continental  grouping)  and  the  world,  is  known 
as  the  party  of  the  Right;  this  is  conservative  in  its 
leanings,  is  constituted  of  the  monied  set,  cares  more  for 
property  rights  than  for  personal  rights.  The  extreme 
Left  is  anarchism.  The  extreme  Right  is  imperialism. 
Anarchism  is  personal  rights  gone  rabid.  Imperialism  is 
property  rights  gone  rabid.  The  former  thinks  only  in 
terms  of  people.  The  latter  thinks  only  in  terms  of 
things.  Anarchism  is  the  extreme  of  individuality;  by 
making  every  ego  different  from  every  other  ego,  it  would 
give  us  a  picturesque  people,  but  miserably  poor.  Im- 
perialism is  the  extreme  of  collectivity;   would  give  us  a 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       179 

people  who  are  all  alike,  and  enormously  rich,  folk  with 
large  bank  balances  but  of  a  bovine  countenance. 

Let  an  anarchist  carry  his  philosophy  into  hteral  prac- 
tice: renounce  all  collectivity,  resolve  that  he  will  eat 
nothing  but  what  his  own  pair  of  hands  have  produced. 
His  meal  would  consist  of  roots  that  he  could  dig  from 
the  forest;  of  fish  also,  provided  he  himself  caught  and 
cleaned  and  cooked  them,  and  mined  the  iron  that  formed 
the  hook,  and  grew  the  cotton  that  constituted  the  fish 
line.  Per  contra,  let  imperialists  carry  their  philosophy 
perfectly  into  practice,  we  would  have  a  world  reduced  to 
asphalt  uniformity.  All  the  human  race  would  dress 
alike,  think  ahke,  talk  alike,  look  alike;  one  colossal 
machine  nm  by  an  engineer  at  the  top.  Enormous  would 
be  the  bulk  of  material  product.  But  there  would  be  no 
fun.  Anarchism  gives  us  a  large  appetite,  and  no  dinner. 
Imperialism  gives  us  a  large  dinner,  and  no  appetite. 

The  propertied  class  always  make  for  uniformity. 
The  more  nearly  the  workingclass  can  be  brought  into  a 
machine-like  regularity,  the  greater  is -their  wealth-pro- 
ducing power.  A  plutocratic  age  is  hostile  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  variation.  As  money  gets  the  upper  hand, 
fashion  predominates;  a  subtle  zeit  gcist  walks  to  and 
fro,  ridiculing  whatever  is  out  of  fashion.  And  for  a 
reason.  Anyone  who  departs  from  the  orthodox  style 
and  mode,  betrays  a  rebel  spirit.  He  must  be  put  down, 
or  he  will  put  plutocracy  down.  That  is  why  rich  people 
bore  each  other;  they  are  of  one  sameness  —  peas  in  a 
pod.  In  their  social  clubs,  when  a  millionaire  meets 
another  millionaire  he  mentally  yawns.  He  knows  there 
is  no  more  possibility  of  hearing  a  new  idea  from  that 
club-mate,  than  of  finding  orchids  under  a  snowbank. 
Anarchism  screams  the  song  of  liberty-that-is-license. 
Imperialism   intones    the  ritual   of  orderliness-that-is- 


180  THE  FREE  CITY 

stagnation.  If  either  got  control,  life  would  be 
unlivable. 

Between  these  two  extremes,  municipality  m  the  via  me- 
dia. When  the  community  is  sovereign — that  group  mid- 
way between  the  family  and  the  nation — the  teeter-board 
hangs  level.  All  the  interests  of  life  then  are  cared  for. 
Under  municipality's  impartial  shepherding,  both  the 
party  of  the  Left  and  the  party  of  the  Right  are  cherished. 
Jesus,  we  saw,  identified  himself  with  this  centralmost 
unit.  Against  the  anarchists  of  that  day,  who  exalted 
the  ego  to  be  supreme,  he  taught  that  a  man  must  lose 
himself  in  something  larger,  and  in  doing  so,  would  find 
his  truer  self.  Against  those  who  wished  to  make  the 
family  the  supreme  loyalty,  he  proclaimed  a  higher  al- 
legiance than  to  "father  or  mother  or  son  or  daughter  or 
mother-in-law  or  daughter-in-law."  Passing  over  to  the 
Right  arm  of  the  teeter-board,  he  rebuked  the  Herods 
and  the  Csesarisms  that  were  shifting  the  center  of  Ufe 
away  from  the  municipal  group  —  Palestine  —  over  into 
the  huge  imperial  state  where  materiaUty  and  money- 
riches  predominated. 

In  declaring  that  in  the  true  Israelite  all  the  thoughts 
of  the  heart  must  be  concentric  with  the  Jerusalem  munic- 
ipaUty,  even  to  the  sacrifice  it  might  be  of  one's  own  blood 
family,  Jesus  was  not  harsh  or  fanatical.  It  was  Great- 
heart  uttering  a  statesmanly  pronouncement.  When  the 
community  is  life's  center,  both  the  Left  and  the  Right 
are  secure.  In  order  to  build  a  noble  family,  there  must 
first  be  a  noble  community.  The  father  who  is  a  good 
parent  but  a  slothful  citizen,  is  bequeathing  a  bitter 
heritage  to  his  children.  Christ's  dogma  that  the  ego 
also  must  yield  its  private  treasures  up  into  municipal 
treasure,  was  hard-headed  practicality.  People  can  pro- 
duce more  by  working  co-operatively  than  by  working 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       181 

privately;  in  return  for  that  surrender  of  self  unto  the 
communal  Self,  Jesus  promised  them  great  return:  "good 
measure,  heaped  up,  shaken  together,  running  over." 
To  the  extremists  on  the  Right,  he  announced  that  life 
does  not  live  by  bread  only.  The  criterion  of  a  meal  is 
not  the  menu  alone,  but  the  gusto  wherewith  it  is  eaten. 
Luscious,  a  dinner  of  herbs,  when  seasoned  with  good 
fellowship.  Jesus  perceived  that  a  materialist  set  of 
people  are  dull;  he  wished  that  they  might  have  life,  and 
might  have  it  more  abundantly.  A  great  people  moder- 
ately rich  —  that  was  the  Jesus'  program. 

MunicipaHty  is  the  core  of  converging  forces.  That  is 
why  the  municipal  eras  in  history  have  been  the  artistic 
eras.  The  classic  school  in  art  thinks  only  of  rules,  pre- 
cedent, "the  tradition  of  the  elders";  a  rehashing  of 
yesterday's  achievements.  The  romanticist  school,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  a  mania  of  innovation,  a  rebellion 
against  all  established  forms,  a  following  of  inspiration 
utterly;  futuristic  fantasias  that  scorn  the  wisdom  of  the 
past.  MunicipaHty  is  the  road  between.  It  is  the  spirit 
of  the  eternal  To-day,  whose  roots  trace  back  into  old 
Yesterday,  and  whose  seed  reaches  to  young  To-morrow. 
In  citizen  commonwealths,  the  fathers  are  reverenced  and 
the  children  are  tenderly  nurtured.  In  art,  that  spirit 
makes  for  originahty.  Stagnancy  keeps  to  the  beaten 
path,  and  stops  when  the  path  stops.  Phantasy  o'er- 
leaps  the  wall  alongside  the  beaten  path,  losing  itself  in 
side  alleys  where  is  no  thoroughfare.  Originality  keeps 
to  the  beaten  path,  and  pushes  it  a  parasang  further. 

MimicipaHty  is  the  world's  sanity.  Any  divergence  of 
sovereignty  away  from  that  midpoint  in  the  teeter-board, 
is  a  departure  into  eccentricity:  "off-center."  Sanity 
means  balance.  Neither  the  party  of  the  Left  nor  the 
party  of  the  Right  has  all  the  wisdom;  but  municipality. 


182  THE  FREE  CITY 

positioned  between  and  comprehending  them  both.  It 
is  the  temperate  zone,  mid-distant  from  the  excessive 
heat  of  the  tropics,  and  the  polar  ice.  As  against  the 
extreme  of  individualism,  it  stands  for  collectivity;  but 
not  for  a  collectivity  so  large  as  to  obliterate  the  individ- 
ual. Against  the  imperialist  extreme,  it  stands  for  in- 
dividuahty;  but  not  for  individuahty  smaller  than 
conmnmities,  which  would  destroy  all  collectivity. 

Collectivism,  provided  the  collectivity  be  not  too  large, 
produces  great  people.  The  outstanding  spirits  in  history 
will  be  found  to  have  appeared  in  or  near  the  epochs 
of  Free  Cities.  The  individual  can  stretch  his  skin  to 
the  area  of  a  small  state,  and  does.  But  the  human  epi- 
dermis is  not  elastic  enough  to  extend  across  a  fabric 
three  thousand  miles  from  east  to  west;  and  the  individual 
does  not  make  the  attempt.  Big  states  breed  small  in- 
dividuals.   Small  states  breed  great  individuals. 

Life  in  city  republics  is  colorful.  Color  is  materiality, 
with  light  shining  upon  it.  In  a  Free  City,  because  of  the 
constricted  frontiers,  the  social  fabric  is  compact.  The 
intellectual  and  the  manual  classes  are  close  together; 
no  gulf  there,  between  the  university  set  and  the  crowd; 
gulf  that  is  so  distressing  a  feature  of  huge  national  states. 
The  tourist  in  Europe  notices  that  the  towns  built  in  the 
Gothic  period  show  a  palace  or  castle  cheek  by  jowl  with 
the  cottages  of  the  lowly.  The  prince  or  rich  man  lived 
in  the  same  street  with  the  hand  workers;  often  in  a 
house  alongside  their  houses.  The  narrowness  of  the 
boundaries  brought  highbrow  and  lowbrow  into  daily 
contact. 

This  neighborliness  between  the  thinkers  and  the 
workers  acted  like,  and  really  was,  a  shining  of  light 
upon  a  material  object;  and  color  was  the  consequence. 
In  city  commonwealths  a  leisure  class  is  never  an  idle 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       183 

class.  They  don't  dare  to  be.  An  idle  class  must  live 
at  so  far  a  remove  from  the  workingclass  that  the  clenched 
fist  of  the  latter  cannot  reach  them,  or  must  have  a  huge 
national  guard  ready  to  be  hurled  against  an  uprising  of 
the  industrial  mass  in  any  locahty.  In  municipal  re- 
publics the  leisurists  lack  both  of  these  safeguards.  They 
live  in  the  same  neighborhood  with  the  workers,  and  the 
sovereignty  of  the  frontier  hedges  outside  troops  from  en- 
tering to  stand  between  the  exploiter  and  his  outraged 
victims.  In  Free  Cities,  therefore,  a  leisure  class  is  com- 
pelled to  justify  its  existence.  So  these  folk  devote 
themselves  and  their  wealth  to  public  uses.  Goethe  was 
fostered  by  the  duke  in  a  small  duchy  on  the  Rhine; 
owed  much  of  his  productivity  to  the  courtly  encourage- 
ment. Wagner  at  the  court  of  Mimich  is  a  more  recent 
example;  without  that  princely  co-operation,  Bayreuth 
would  never  have  been. 

In  big  states,  the  rich  live  in  a  city  far-distant  from  the 
factory  town  where  their  dividends  are  produced.  There- 
fore the  leisure  class  to-day  degenerates  into  an  idle  class. 
And  the  workers  in  turn,  deprived  of  that  quickening 
contact  with  the  more  cultured  leisurists,  slump  down  into 
sodden  dullards.  Art  is  that  which  is  richly  formed  and 
roughly  finished;  every  chair  and  dish  and  kettle  touched 
into  shapehness.  To-day  our  makers  of  beauty  cater  to 
an  idle  class;  to  embellish  an  existence  already  over- 
embeUished.  "Fine  Art"  is  the  result;  a  sickishly 
ornate,  overpolished  piece  of  work;  as  though  one  should 
sit  down  to  a  dinner  of  marshmellows,  bonbons,  and  cake. 
The  while  all  the  useful  things  are  untouched  by  refined 
handiwork.  The  Greeks  had  no  use  for  "artists,"  by 
which  term  they  meant  those  who  produce  mere  sumptu- 
ousness  divorced  from  utihty.  Plato  in  his  ideal  com- 
monwealth would  not  admit  this  type.    The  Athenians 


184  THE  FREE  CITY 

were  artistic,  because  they  insisted  that  beauty  and 
utility  be  conjoined.  They  desired  craftsmen  rather 
than  "artists";  hard-handed  workmen  dreaming  dreams. 
With  them  the  workshop  masses  merged  with  college 
professors  and  the  courtly  set.  So  they  presented  a  life 
rich  with  color.  Municipality,  by  bringing  the  head  and 
the  hand  together,  produces  a  highly  pictorial  form  of 
state;  a  society  wherein  every  dream  tends  towards  ma- 
terial expression;  yeast  and  the  lump  interfusing. 

In  municipal  repubUcs  people  do  not  read  romance; 
they  Uve  it.  Survey  the  city  commonwealths  of  North 
Italy,  where  Shakespeare  and  Browning  drew  so  much 
of  their  dramatic  materials:  Venice,  Florence,  Pisa, 
Milan,  Verona,  Padua.  Those  citizens  were  attuned 
habitually  to  a  higher  level  of  vivacity  and  noble  prompt- 
ings, than  folk  in  our  dull  age.  Life  was  not  puritanic, 
in  the  sense  of  outward  repressions  that  screw  down 
clamps  upon  life.  The  zest  of  participation  in  the  civic 
adventure  after  Uberty,  indisposed  them  to  animal 
promptings.  Political  freedom,  in  whose  dihgence  they 
were  unceasing,  kept  them  at  the  top  of  their  condition. 
Their  city  was  an  independent  and  sovereign  being  among 
the  sovereignties  of  the  earth.  The  communion  of  that 
responsibihty  wrought  its  effect  on  the  component  mem- 
bers. It  fashioned  them  unto  good  incUnations;  made 
the  brain  aUve;  exercised  them  to  a  noble  stature  of  in- 
tellect, and  a  rugged  moral  conformation. 

They  had  small  need  of  paper  novels.  Only  when  life 
itself  is  dismal,  do  people  crave  fiction.  Civic  shabbiness 
drives  a  man  to  the  land  of  make-believe,  where  his  soul 
may  find  artificial  sustentation.  Citizenship  in  a  munic- 
ipal republic  made  the  fife  of  men  a  daily  riding  forth 
upon  adventure.  It  kindled  a  lustre  in  the  eye,  begat 
spiritual  hveliness,  verve,  a  will  to  freedom.    They  be- 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       185 

held  their  city  unfolding  into  piquancy  and  splendor.  In 
such  an  atmosphere,  how  could  they  have  an  ear  for 
stories  spun  by  make-believers?  Here  was  a  dream  woven 
out  of  the  stuff  of  each  common  day.  One  cannot  read 
the  history  of  city  commonwealths  without  a  feeling  that 
the  winds  which  blew  over  them  were  aromatic  with  a 
pungency  from  the  spice  fields  of  paradise.  Civic  in- 
dependence is  a  dangerous  endeavor.  The  fruitful  agi- 
tation made  the  nerves  of  their  mind  sprightly;  stirred 
them  to  an  unconventionahty  of  thought  and  deed,  in 
comparison  with  which  the  written  novel  is  tame.  City 
states  have  produced  few  parchment  romances.  But 
they  performed  deeds  that  whip  the  sluggish  blood- 
stream of  the  reader,  and  which  have  graced  the  chroni- 
cles of  mankind. 

Municipahty  not  alone  makes  for  color,  tang,  high 
flavor,  a  life  possessing  fillip  and  edge.  Also  it  makes  for 
power.  Community  states  are  strong  states.  When  the 
municipality  is  king,  it  governs,  and  with  a  vigor  un- 
known to  other  forms  of  the  social  union.  Nationalism 
is  fat,  rich,  easy-going  anarchy.  Government  is  hke 
gravitation:  its  force  diminishes  with  the  square  of  the 
distance  over  which  it  has  to  travel.  Nations  are  a 
loosely  articulated  agglomerate  of  individualisms;  and 
the  larger  the  nation,  the  more  relaxed  is  the  tie.  Only 
on  the  occasions  of  war,  does  a  national  fabric  gather 
strength.  In  such  a  moment,  a  flash  of  color  bursts  out, 
the  red  glare  of  a  million  men  regimented  for  battle. 
Nationalism  is  monotony  relieved  by  conflagrations. 
These  conflagrations  that  open  like  red  blossoms  in  the 
night,  are  exhaustive  to  the  soil  they  feed  upon.  After 
one  blooming  —  whose  name  is  war  —  the  plant  has  to 
await  a  long  refertiHzation  before  it  can  bloom  again. 
These  intervals  during  which  is  being  built  the  com- 


186  THE  FREE  CITY 

missariat  of  a  new  war,  are  periods  largely  of  govern- 
mental abdication. 

America  illustrates  it.  Here  is  the  largest  of  national 
aggregates.  And  we  Americans  are  the  most  individual- 
istic of  peoples.  This  Manchester  school  of  thought 
known  as  Laissez  faire —  "Let  the  people  alone"  — was 
founded  by  Adam  Smith  in  1776.  It  was  adopted  by  the 
United  States  Constitution  in  1787.  America,  in  thus 
giving  to  all  of  her  people  a  "fair  field  and  no  favor," 
professes  therein  to  be  their  friend.  Jesus,  that  Keeper 
of  the  sheep,  would  say  that  a  "Let  them  alone"  govern- 
ment is  abdication  by  the  shepherd  of  his  duty  towards 
the  flock.  Actually  Laissez  faire  means,  "Let  'em 
fight."  But  the  wolves  are  better  fighters  than  the  sheep. 
Therefore  the  wolves  prefer  nationaMsm  to  municipalism; 
the  more  removed  the  shepherd  is  from  his  flock,  the 
better  they  like  it.  When  the  shepherd  has  but  a  small 
flock,  the  wolves  keep  away.  When  the  shepherd  has  a 
flock  so  large  that  he  no  longer  can  see  them  all,  the  wolf 
has  a  fat  dinner  daily.  It  is  not  a  betrayal  of  secrets  to 
say  that  in  America,  Big  Business  overrides  the  people  at 
its  pleasure.  Nor  is  there  any  power  to  prevent  that 
overriding.  Congress?  Congress  is  a  device  for  per- 
mitting the  goose  to  squawk,  whilst  the  feathers  are  being 
plucked.  A  big  state  means  the  crumbling  of  society 
into  a  free-for-all;  the  survival  of  the  brutallest;  egoisms 
rushing  an  ever  more  headlong  and  turbulent  pace.  It 
is  the  competitive  idea;  unruliness  and  scoundreUsms 
that  are  hke  to  transform  us  into  swine.  The  reason 
why  that  civil  war  broke  out  in  Bisbee,  Arizona,  between 
the  mine  owners  and  the  operatives,  was  because  each 
side  felt  that  Washington  was  powerless  to  protect  it. 
So  the  workers  took  their  protection  into  their  own  hands; 
which  meant  sabotage  and  violence.    The  mine  owners 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH   IS  KING      187 

likewise  took  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  deporting 
hundreds  of  men  from  their  homes  and  families,  to  starve 
in  the  desert.  A  far-off  ruler  is  a  weak  ruler;  a  grandpa 
thing,  blustering  good-naturedly.  As  the  arm  of  govern- 
ment lengthens,  the  energy  of  government  weakens. 

In  contrast  with  that  picture  of  pseudo-government, 
municipaUty  means  the  onmipotence  of  the  state.  And 
not  by  outward  force,  so  much  as  by  inward  magnetism. 
Socrates,  in  that  closing  hour  of  his  life,  furnishes  an  ex- 
ample of  what  I  mean.  The  attachment  of  the  Athenians 
to  the  hymns  and  ceremonies  inherited  from  the  fathers 
was  so  affectionate  that  they  could  not  bear  this  skeptic, 
Socrates,  who  came  poking  his  nose  into  mysteries  so 
chockfull  of  memories  of  the  departed.  And  yet  the 
intellect  also  has  its  rights.  Of  which,  Socrates  was  the 
votary.  He  inaugurated  the  spirit  of  research  and  in- 
quiry, no  matter  how  sacred  be  the  field  of  investigation. 
So  he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  reverential  school; 
was  tried  on  a  charge  of  impiety;  was  convicted;  and 
sentenced  to  death.  Crito  came  to  him  in  prison,  and 
offered  to  use  his  wealth  to  corrupt  the  jailer  and  effect 
his  escape.  Socrates  refused  the  offer.  Let  us  overhear 
him: 

"Consider  the  matter  in  this  way.  Imagine  that  I 
am  about  to  play  truant,  and  the  laws  and  the  govern- 
ment interrogate  me :  *  Socrates,  are  you  going  to  overturn 
us,  the  laws  and  the  whole  state,  as  far  as  in  you  Ues? 
Do  you  imagine  that  a  state  can  subsist,  in  which  the  de- 
cisions of  law  have  no  power  but  are  set  aside  and  over- 
thrown by  individuals?'  Yes,  but  the  state  has  given 
an  unjust  sentence.  'And  was  that  our  agreement  with 
you,'  the  law  would  say;  'or  were  you  to  abide  by  the 
sentence  of  the  state?  Did  we  not  bring  you  into  exist- 
ence?   Your  father  married  your  mother    by  our  aid, 


188  THE  FREE  CITY 

and  begat  you.  Were  not  the  laws  right  in  commanding 
your  father  to  train  you?  Well  then,  since  you  were 
brought  into  the  world  and  nurtured  and  educated  by  us, 
can  you  deny  that  you  are  our  child,  as  your  fathers  were 
before  you?  And  if  this  is  true,  you  are  not  on  equal 
terms  with  us;  nor  can  you  think  that  you  have  a  right 
to  do  to  us  what  we  are  doing  to  you.  Would  you  have 
any  right  to  strike  or  revile  or  do  any  other  evil  to  a 
father  or  to  a  master  if  you  had  one,  when  you  have  been 
struck  or  reviled  by  him,  or  received  some  other  evil  at 
his  hands?  And  because  we  think  right  to  destroy  you, 
do  you  think  that  you  have  a  right  to  destroy  us  in  re- 
turn? Has  a  philosopher  Hke  you  failed  to  discover  that 
our  country  is  more  to  be  valued  and  higher  and  hoHer 
far  than  mother  or  father  or  any  ancestor?  When  we 
are  punished  by  her,  whether  with  imprisonment  or 
stripes,  the  punishment  is  to  be  endured  in  silence;  and 
if  she  leads  us  to  wounds  or  death  in  battle,  thither  we 
follow  as  is  right;  neither  may  anyone  yield  or  retreat 
or  leave  his  ranks;  but  whether  in  battle  or  in  a  court 
of  law  or  in  any  other  place,  he  must  do  what  his  city 
and  his  country  order  him.  After  having  brought  you 
into  the  world  and  nurtured  and  educated  you  and  given 
you  and  every  other  citizen  a  share  in  every  good  that 
we  had  to  give,  we  further  proclaim  and  give  the  right 
to  every  Athenian  that  if  he  does  not  like  us  when  he  has 
come  of  age  and  has  seen  the  ways  of  the  city  and  made 
our  acquaintance,  he  may  go  where  he  pleases  and  take 
his  goods  with  him,  and  none  of  our  laws  will  forbid  him 
or  interfere  with  him.  Any  of  you  who  does  not  like  us 
and  the  city,  and  who  wants  to  go  to  a  colony  or  to  any 
other  city  may  go.  But  he  who  has  experience  of  the 
manner  in  which  we  order  justice  and  administer  the 
state,  and  still  remains,  has  entered  into  an  implied  con- 


WHEN  COMMONWEALTH  IS  KING       189 

tract  that  he  will  do  as  we  command  him.  Of  all  Athe- 
nians you  have  been  the  most  constant  resident  in  the 
city;  which,  as  you  never  leave,  you  may  be  supposed  to 
love.  You  never  went  out  of  the  city,  either  to  see  the 
games  (except  once,  when  you  went  to  the  Isthmus)  or 
to  any  other  place,  unless  you  were  on  military  service; 
nor  did  you  travel  as  other  men  do.  Your  affections  did 
not  go  beyond  us.  We  were  your  special  favorites.  You 
acquiesced  in  our  government  of  you.  And  now  you 
have  forgotten  these  fine  sentiments  and  pay  no  respect 
to  us,  the  laws,  of  which  you  are  the  destroyer;  and  are 
doing  what  only  a  miserable  slave  would  do,  running  away 
and  turning  your  back  upon  the  agreements  which  you 
made  as  a  citizen.' " 

In  all  great  art,  the  master  note  is  serenity;  a  sense 
that  the  life  has  found  its  center  of  rotation;  so  that  the 
man  works  with  all  energy  of  belief,  tranquU  and  victori- 
ous. The  community  is  that  center.  Let  the  teeter- 
board  fulcrum  at  that  point,  the  two  arms  then  are  on  an 
equality;  and  on  both  of  them  mighty  masses  can  be 
carried.  Municipality  is  equipoise;  a  Janus  head  that 
faces  at  once  the  ego  and  the  world.  Because  our  modern 
world  has  departed  from  that  center,  we  behold  pell- 
mell  confusion;  five  contending  courts  of  appeal  brawl- 
ing one  against  the  other;  a  riot  of  judgments  and 
decisions.  A  great  wheel  must  have  an  immovable  axis; 
a  center  that  shifts  is  no  center.  Only  singlemindedness 
is  tranquillity. 

Doubt  is  mental  disunion;  a  split  in  the  family  of  the 
mind.  It  is  the  cry  of  the  outcast  members  of  that 
family,  wandering  lost  on  the  mountain  side;  and  the 
anguish  of  those  in  the  home,  because  of  the  vacant 
places  around  the  hearthstone.  As  doubt  is  a  quarrel- 
some condition  of  the  mind,  Faith  is  mental  integrity. 


190  THE  FREE  CITY 

The  compression  of  all  the  facts  of  life  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  city  state  engenders  not  only  a  unification  of 
the  people  but  also  a  unification  of  the  mind.  It  pro- 
duces Belief — that  serenity  which  comes  when  the  par- 
liament of  the  mind  votes  imanimously. 

When  municipality  is  king,  God  is  king.  Able  strate- 
gist, he  plays  the  middle  against  both  ends.  Centrality 
is  divinity.  A  Free  City  is  Lord  God's  masterpiece;  a 
society  rich-colored,  kingly,  and  affectionate.  To  the 
conmiunity  belongs  the  sovereignty;  all  of  the  other  in- 
stitutes of  life  must  be  marginaUa.  Nationahsm  is  lop- 
sidedness,  and  because  of  it  the  foundations  of  the  world 
are  out  of  course.  It  has  caused  the  dollar  to  be  imduly 
preponderant,  with  spirituahty  lapsing  in  slow  decay. 
City  worship  arises  to  redress  the  balance.  From  that 
sorrow  of  history,  a  churchly  church  and  a  worldly  world, 
municipahty  comes  to  dehver  us. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING 

OUR  planet  for  the  first  time  is  full  up  with  people. 
That  is  the  new  fact  in  the  world's  history.  Until 
a  few  years  ago,  there  were  vacant  territories 
caUing  for  settlers.  Accordingly  there  was  not  a  social 
problem  such  as  we  are  facing.  A  discontented  section 
of  the  population,  due  to  maladjustment  of  the  social 
organism,  could  go  off  into  the  virgin  territory.  Govern- 
ments lightened  the  load  of  discontent  by  systematic 
emigration. 

That  avenue  of  reUef  is  no  longer  open.  There  are 
still  some  vacant  areas  on  the  map.  But  these  lie  for 
the  most  part  out  of  the  temperate  zone;  migrants 
thither  must  venture  into  unaccustomed  climates,  so  that 
only  a  few  —  comparatively  —  attempt  it.  The  bulk  of 
the  malcontented  are  now  staying  home.  And  will  have 
to  be  dealt  with.  Society  hitherto  was  able  to  lead  an 
irregular  life,  without  grave  consequences.  Let  the 
body  pohtic  be  overtaken  with  indigestion,  due  to  an 
imassimilated  mass  of  the  population,  it  could  belch 
forth  the  troublesome  stuff  in  the  form  of  a  colony.  After 
which  easy  relief,  it  could  resume  its  irregulated  manner 
of  life.    But  that  vent  is  no  longer  available. 

That  is  at  bottom  the  meaning  of  the  World  War. 

In  the  decades  immediately  preceding  our  own,  there  had 

been  a  frenzied  search  by  the  nations  for  new  lands  to 

191 


192  THE  FREE  CITY 

be  colonized;  and  for  world  markets,  to  keep  their  dis- 
contented ones  busy  in  shops  and  factories,  and  so  to 
pianissimo  the  gnmiblings.  Competition  for  these  out- 
lets intensified.  The  growlings  of  the  Have-nots  in  the 
homeland  goaded  the  ruKng  classes  to  more  frantic  search 
for  dumping  grounds  outside.  The  governments  com- 
peted one  against  the  other.  Finally  the  tension,  strain- 
ing from  more  to  more,  reached  the  breaking  point. 

In  these  doings,  America  imconsciously  was  a  cardinal 
factor.  For  over  a  hundred  years  these  United  States 
had  been  the  chief  channel  for  Europe's  populational  re- 
Uef.  Here  were  tracts  awaiting  settlers.  Here  also 
was  a  huge  market  for  European  factory  products.  Here 
thirdly  was  a  field  for  the  investment  of  their  surplus 
capital.  This  condition  of  affairs  continued  until  about 
1888.  By  that  date,  America's  absorption  power  was 
coming  to  an  end.  Instead  of  taking  in  the  overplus 
from  other  nations,  we  were  showing  signs  of  an  overplus 
of  our  own.  With  this  outlet  closed  to  them,  or  closing, 
the  nations  of  Europe  turned  upon  each  other  in  rivalry 
for  the  vacant  lands  and  markets  to  be  found  elsewhere. 
Until  August  4,  1914. 

We  humans  have  got  to  learn  the  art  of  Hving  together. 
Class  hatreds  can  no  longer  be  mehorated  by  putting 
spatial  distance  between  them.  We  must  institute  a 
poUtical  estabUshment  based  on  fellowship.  National- 
ity is  consohdated  wealth.  Municipality  is  common- 
wealth. The  principle  of  community  announces  that  on 
a  crowded  planet  the  only  way  we  can  get  elbow  room 
is  by  locking  arms. 

An  impression  prevails  that  America  tried  the  poHty 
of  small  republics,  and  found  it  wanting.  The  Articles 
of  Confederation,  under  which  the  Thirteen  States  Uved 
for  four  years  following  the  American  Revolution,  brought 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      193 

things  to  a  deplorable  pass  —  say  these  voices  —  and  a 
national  regime  had  to  be  established.  Under  the  Con- 
federation, the  central  Congress  was  falling  more  and  more 
into  disrepute.  It  could  not  enforce  the  requisitions  it 
made  on  the  States.  So  indifferent  were  the  delegates 
in  their  attendance  on  this  decrepit  body,  it  often  had  to 
wait  for  a  quorum.  There  was  no  central  power  to  pro- 
vide for  the  general  defence  and  secure  the  general  wel- 
fare. A  situation  verging  on  anarchy;  until  Alexander 
Hamilton  and  his  confreres  came  to  the  rescue,  cast  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  on  the  scrap  heap,  and  gave  to 
mankind  the  American  Nation.  Since  which  providential 
date,  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  been  slowly  but  surely 
building  itself  here  on  this  western  soil;  until  now  the 
highlands  of  Heaven  are  beginning  to  be  visible  above  the 
horizon. 

There  is  emerging,  however,  an  obstinate  school  of 
questioners,  highly  skeptical  of  the  godUkeness  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  and  his  coterie.  If  this  nowaday  America 
of  sabotage,  race  riots,  strikes,  bomb-throwings,  law- 
lessness, lobbyists  and  boodlers,  defiant  corruptionists,  ap- 
palUng  break-up  of  famiUes,  cynical  poHticians,  a  society 
cleaving  in  twain  between  the  immoderately  rich  and  the 
immoderately  poor,  universal  mediocrity,  a  dull  gray 
dinginess  relieved  only  by  gigantic  preparations  for 
slaughter,  a  dearth  of  art,  neurasthenics,  a  dying  church, 
stationary  education,  the  commerciaUzed  theatre,  and  a 
general  advance  of  the  cohorts  of  mammon  —  if  this  be 
the  Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  or  the  outposts  and' 
commencement  of  the  same,  one  can  only  say  that  Heaven 
is  different  from  what  the  imagination  figured  it  was 
going  to  be. 

Furthermore,  in  making  Hamilton  and  his  partners  into 
demigods  who  could  do  no  wrong,  and  who  gave  us  a 


194  THE  FREE  CITY 

Constitution  which  it  is  impious  to  scrutinize,  our  school 
histories  are  going  beyond  even  the  men  who  wrote  that 
instrument.  Those  men  had  doubts  as  to  the  omnis- 
cience of  the  course  they  were  pursuing  and  the  ever- 
lastingness  of  the  document  they  were  writing.  They 
ostentatiously  omitted  that  formula  "The  union  shall  be 
perpetual,"  found  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  And 
instead,  they  inserted  in  the  Constitution  machinery  to 
make  a  new  constitution,  whenever  the  present  one  should 
have  become  intolerable.  That  proviso  for  calling  a 
constituent  assembly  has  remained  a  dead  letter,  because 
during  these  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  America  never 
before  was  in  a  convulsion  of  the  state.  To  suggest 
that  the  time  is  ripening  to  put  that  never-used  machinery 
to  work,  is  not  to  be  sacrilegious  towards  those  Consti- 
tution-framers;  but  is  doing  quite  what  they  thought 
would  probably  be  done  at  some  time  or  other,  and  what 
they  themselves  would  have  no  hesitation  in  doing  if 
they  were  living  now  and  felt  that  the  fabric  was  funda- 
mentally out  of  joint.  Pronounced  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall: "The  people  made  the  Constitution,  and  the 
people  can  unmake  it." 

Under  that  Constitution  has  arisen  the  richest,  most 
colossal  plutocracy  since  time  began.  The  magnates  of 
Roman  Empire  days  were  poor  in  the  comparison.  Which 
growth  of  a  greatly  monied  class  has  taken  place,  not  in 
spite  of  the  Constitution  but  because  of  it.  I  am  not 
saying  that  the  writers  of  that  instrument  foresaw  the 
Midas  development  in  the  magnitude  that  now  has  come 
to  pass.  Washington  was  the  wealthiest  man  of  that 
time.  His  fortune  was  about  half  a  miUion  dollars. 
Among  his  contemporaries  he  was  their  conception  of 
superlative  wealth.  Had  they  been  told  that  under  the 
materialistic   civihzation   they   were   inaugurating,   men 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      195 

would  arise  with  incomes  of  a  million  dollars  a  week, 
their  imaginations  would  have  been  staggered.  They 
would  have  paused  before  letting  loose  so  torrential  a  tide 
of  greed,  and  so  prodigious  a  private  power. 

With  this  caution,  the  fact  remains  that  oiu*  Consti- 
tution was  built  by  the  rich  and  for  the  rich.  In  the 
Convention  that  framed  it,  were  55  men.  And  not  one 
of  them  was  from  the  ranks  of  the  laboring  class.  They 
were  wealthy  lawyers,  plantation  owners,  wealthy  mer- 
chants, wealthy  land  speculators.  And  practically  every 
one  of  them  was  personally  the  gainer  by  the  new  form  of 
society  they  inaugurated.  Said  Fisher  Ames,  a  member 
of  the  ratifying  convention  in  Massachusetts,  "I  conceive, 
sir,  that  the  present  Constitution  was  dictated  by  com- 
mercial necessity  more  than  any  other  cause."  A  nation 
of  shop-keepers,  as  Matthew  Arnold  termed  the  Ameri- 
cans, has  not  come  to  pass  by  accident,  but  by  a  Con- 
stitution designed  to  that  end.  Charles  Lamb  said  that 
the  Atlantic  seaboard  presented  itself  to  his  imagination 
as  a  long  counter  spread  with  wares.  If  Americans  are 
content  to  read  the  meaning  of  the  universe  in  terms  of 
material  comfort,  obesity,  and  a  bank  balance,  then  our 
Constitution  is  the  godliest  thing. 

The  same  men  who  framed  the  Constitution  took  the 
reins  of  government.  From  that  omnipotent  vantage 
point  they  have  swayed  our  schools  and  colleges  and  pul- 
pits; seeing  to  it  that  children  and  grown-ups  from  that 
day  to  this  should  be  taught  "the  chaos  of  the  govern- 
ment under  the  Articles  of  Confederation."  However, 
the  new  school  of  historians,  led  by  fearless  men  of  the 
type  of  Charles  Beard,  are  bringing  many  facts  to  light. 
Truth,  though  crushed  to  earth  by  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  of  concerted  indoctrination,  wiU  rise  again. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  evidence  of  the  failure  of 


196  THE  FREE  CITY 

those  Articles  of  Confederation.  Bankruptcy?  But 
listen  to  this,  from  Governor  Clinton's  message  to  the 
New  York  legislature  in  1786,  one  year  before  the  Con- 
federation was  given  up  to  make  way  for  nationalism: 
"It  affords  me  the  most  sensible  pleasure  to  observe  that 
nothing  hath  happened  since  the  close  of  last  session  to 
disturb  the  public  tranquillity;  that  good  order,  obedi- 
ence to  the  laws,  and  the  due  observance  of  justice,  have 
generally  prevailed;  that  the  different  districts  of  the 
State  by  the  industry  of  the  citizens  are  rapidly  recover- 
ing from  the  waste  and  desolation  of  the  war;  and  that 
the  toils  of  the  husbandmen  have  been  amply  rewarded 
by  a  fruitful  season  and  a  plentiful  harvest."  If  it  be 
objected  that  this  is  too  narrow  a  body  of  testimony,  be- 
cause it  narrates  conditions  in  but  one  of  the  Thirteen 
States,  read  this  letter  written  by  Benjamin  FrankUn  to 
David  Hartly  of  England  the  year  previous:  "Your 
newspapers  are  filled  with  accounts  of  distresses  and 
miseries  that  these  States  are  plunged  into  since  their 
separation  from  Britain.  You  may  believe  me  when  I 
tell  you  that  there  is  no  truth  in  those  accounts.  I  find 
all  property  in  lands  and  houses  vastly  augmented  in 
value;  that  of  houses  in  towns  at  least  fourfold.  The 
crops  have  been  plentiful;  and  yet  the  produce  sells  high, 
to  the  great  profit  of  the  farmer.  At  the  same  time  all 
imported  goods  sell  at  low  rates,  some  cheaper  than  the 
first  cost.  Working  people  have  plenty  of  employ,  and 
high  pay  for  their  labor." 

The  "Stars  and  Stripes,"  flag  that  Betsy  Ross  designed 
and  that  is  full  of  associations  for  the  American  heart, 
was  a  product  of  this  Confederation  era.  It  was  con- 
ceived to  emblem  a  federal  state,  not  a  national  state. 
Under  the  Confederation,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee 
were  peopled.    Colleges  were  estabUshed  at  Annapolis, 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      197 

Abington,  and  Georgetown,  Philadelphia,  Lancaster,  the 
University  of  Georgia,  and  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
Population  increased.  Encouragement  was  given  to 
science,  agriculture,  and  the  arts.  Do  these  facts  present 
a  picture  of  "chaos";  of  "a  condition  verging  on 
anarchy?  " 

The  argument  that  the  Continental  Congress  was 
falUng  into  a  decrepit  body  so  httle  heeded  by  the  States 
that  ofttimes  it  could  not  get  a  quorum,  is  excellent  and 
vahd  if  representative  government  be  the  divinely  or- 
dained form  of  administering  human  affairs;  but  is 
ludicrous  to  those  who  hold  that  community  self-govern- 
ment is  Heaven's  first  commandment.  The  States  were 
allowing  that  central  Congress  to  die,  because  they  had 
no  more  need  of  it.  Each  State  was  managing  its  own 
business.  The  Continental  Congress  had  been  needful 
when  the  States  were  at  war  with  England;  consoUdated 
action  was  a  military  requisite;  and  the  States  had  given 
over  many  of  their  powers  into  its  hands.  With  the 
cessation  of  hostihties,  the  exceptional  situation  under 
which  the  people  had  relinquished  temporarily  the  right 
to  govern  themselves,  ended.  And  the  States  proceeded 
to  take  back  the  power  into  their  own  hands.  The 
public  debt?  There  was  no  intent  of  repudiation.  They 
were  setting  apart  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  the 
western  lands,  to  be  security  for  that  debt;  a  security 
that  was  ample,  a  thousand  and  a  milUon  times  over. 

"But  the  people  were  unable  to  govern  themselves," 
insist  the  historians,  anxious  to  defend  Hamilton;  "there- 
fore the  government  had  to  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  populace  and  vested  in  a  central  body  who  would  do 
the  governing  with  expertness."  If  that  be  true,  the 
Americans  who  won  our  hberties  from  George  Third, 
and  from  whom  we  trace  our  blood,  were  inferior  to  the 


198  THE  FREE  CITY 

Romans  and  the  Athenians  and  the  cathedral-building 
Gothics.  By  what  composition  of  a  superior  clay  were 
the  folk  of  the  Hanseatic  League  able  to  rule  themselves 
through  four  hundred  years  of  splendid  existence;  whereas 
cm-  American  fathers,  after  an  endeavor  lasting  through 
four  years,  had  to  be  put  under  tutors  and  guardians? 
If  it  be  not  true,  then  it  is  a  hbel  on  our  forefathers,  and 
should  be  erased  from  the  history  books  without  delay. 

"No,  you  misunderstand  us,"  quickly  interject  the 
history  writers.  "We  don't  mean  that  our  grandsires 
were  incompetent  to  govern  their  home  affairs.  We 
merely  mean  that  they  were  showing  themselves  incom- 
petent of  administering  their  inter-state  relations.  And 
nationalism  had  to  be  instituted,  to  do  this  for  them." 
But  this  also,  if  true,  were  a  most  grievous  inferiority. 
Those  Hanseatics  were  capable  of  making  and  keeping 
diplomatic  treaties.  The  Swiss  cantons  could  do  it. 
The  United  Provinces  of  the  Netherlands  did  it.  Also, 
the  commonwealths  of  the  Lombard  and  Tuscan  Leagues; 
and  the  Confederation  of  Rhodes.  By  what  decree  of 
malevolent  fate  were  our  grandfathers  of  a  shrunken 
mental  stature  over  those  men  of  other  times  and  climes? 

It  is  a  reUef  to  find  that  the  school  book  histories,  in 
seeking  to  belittle  our  forebears,  have  departed  from  the 
facts.  Indeed,  that  last  charge  is  particularly  ludicrous. 
The  suggestion  that  led  to  the  Convention  of  1787  and 
cm"  Constitution,  originated  precisely  in  a  meeting  be- 
tween two  of  the  States,  to  adjust  by  diplomatic  pro- 
cedure a  question  of  boundary.  Both  Maryland  and 
Virginia  had  occasion  to  navigate  the  Potomac  river. 
Therefore  each  appointed  a  commission  to  draft  a  treaty 
for  the  joint  use  of  that  stream.  The  diplomats  as- 
sembled, in  wise  and  amicable  session.  The  transaction 
was  an  entire  success.    So  much  so,  in  fact,  that  those 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      199 

commissioners  suggested  the  calling  of  a  convention  to 
devise  a  board  of  high  commissioners  to  include  all  of 
the  States;  sort  of  a  permanent  board  of  arbitration 
to  consider  inter-state  difiiculties.  Hamilton  and  his 
fellows,  who  had  been  hungering  after  a  consolidated 
nationalistic  form  of  union,  seized  upon  this  innocent  sug- 
gestion and  transformed  it  into  the  coup  d'etat  known  as 
the  Convention  of  1787;  and  our  present  Constitution. 
("Coup  d'6tat"  is  not  too  strong  a  word  to  describe  their 
deed.  They  recognized  the  startling  nature  of  the  thing 
they  were  doing;  and  threw  over  the  transactions  of 
that  Convention  an  impervious  veil  of  secrecy.  Which 
veil  was  not  lifted  until  something  Uke  forty  years  later; 
and  even  then,  it  was  found  that  the  minutes  of  the  Con- 
vention had  not  been  permitted  to  take  a  complete  record 
of  what  was  said  on  the  floor  of  the  assembly.)  Nor  was 
the  diplomatic  success  achieved  by  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia unique.  One  year  later,  New  York  and  Massa- 
cliusetts  adjusted  a  boundary  dispute  in  the  same 
fashion. 

"But  the  Thirteen  States  were  naked  to  their  foes,  and 
therefore  had  to  surrender  their  freedom  into  the  hands  of 
a  strong  nationahst  government."  Naked  to  what  foes? 
The  most  formidable  military  power  in  the  world  was 
Great  Britain.  And  the  Thirteen  States,  under  a  fed- 
erated form  of  union,  had  just  fought  her  triumphantly. 
If  the  Confederation  could  write  a  Yorktown  on  its  ban- 
ners once,  could  they  not,  flushed  now  by  prestige  and 
the  habit  of  victory,  have  repeated  the  achievement? 
But  Em-ope  was  making  no  further  threats.  England 
and  France  were  at  that  precise  moment  lining  up  against 
each  other  for  the  wrestle  between  Pitt  and  Napoleon; 
a  wrestle  that  was  to  engross  all  Europe  for  the  next 
twenty-five  years. 


200  THE  FREE  CITY 

If  none  of  the  above-mentioned  was  truly  the  movmg 
cause  for  supplanting  here  in  America  the  principle  of 
municipality  with  the  principle  of  nationality,  what  then 
was  the  motive?  It  has  already  been  hinted.  When 
the  Revolution  had  wrought  its  work  of  political  freedom, 
it  was  found  that  a  ferment  had  been  planted  in  the 
people  towards  social  freedom.  The  Have-nots  began  to 
seek  an  equaUty  with  the  Haves.  They  said  that  the 
War  had  been  fought  by  all  of  the  population.  There- 
fore all  ought  to  share  in  the  new  dispensation  that  was 
here  being  inaugurated.  The  human  family  in  America 
should  make  a  fresh  start.  This  was  an  unexpected 
sequel  to  that  Liberty  Bell  business  of  1776.  The  own- 
ing class  had  meant  a  Declaration  of  Independence  by 
and  for  the  well-propertied.  They  made  now  the  wryest 
kind  of  a  face  at  this  idea  that  the  workers  also  should 
drink  of  the  heady  wine  of  freedom. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation  had  constituted  in 
America  what  were  practically  thirteen  municipal  re- 
pubUcs:  "The  said  states  thereby  severally  enter  into  a 
firm  league  and  friendship  with  each  other,  for  their 
common  defence,  the  security  of  their  hberties,  and  their 
mutual  and  general  welfare;  binding  themselves  to  assist 
each  other,  against  all  force  offered  to  or  attacks  made 
upon  them  or  any  of  them."  But  it  was  expressly  laid 
down:  "Each  state  retains  its  sovereignty,  freedom  and 
independence." 

Being  thus  little  repubhcs,  the  seat  of  government  in 
each  of  them  was  close  to  the  people.  The  ratio  be- 
tween the  government  and  the  number  of  people  partici- 
pating in  it  was  not  so  large  as  to  swallow  up  the  individual 
in  a  sense  of  helplessness.  It  was  a  collectivity,  but  of 
moderate  size;  so  that  each  man  still  felt  himself  to  be  an 
entity.    These  people  proceeded  to  get  hold  of  the  gov- 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING     201 

eminent  in  their  respective  states,  in  order  to  remove  the 
economic  disadvantages  under  which  they  were  laboring. 
They  wished  that  the  new  order  of  things  here  in  America 
should  be  set  going,  purged  of  the  class  cleavages  that 
had  disfigured  the  societies  of  Europe.  The  rich  had 
financed  the  war.  But  the  workingclass  had  given  an 
equal  devotion,  in  their  blood  poured  out.  Solon,  at 
Athens,  had  recognized  this  necessity  of  economic  soli- 
darity, if  the  body  poUtic  was  to  be  permanent  and 
glorious.  Taking  the  helm  of  state  when  a  class  chasm 
was  threatening,  he  had  cancelled  the  existing  debts, 
gave  the  social  organism  a  new  and  fresh  start.  In  the 
Bible  there  was  statutory  provision  for  doing  this  once 
every  fifty  years.  Accordingly,  could  not  these  American 
States,  now  in  this  exceptional  moment  of  a  new  era 
commencing,  in  a  virgin  continent,  do  something  along 
the  same  line?  Why  not  —  so  they  argued  —  estabUsh 
a  liberal  and  democratic  communion,  man  with  man  in 
natural  fellowship?  Let  caste  and  class  be  relegated  to 
the  old  fabric  of  Europe,  which  they  were  happily  casting 
off;  declare  a  severance  from  that  Old  World,  not  only 
as  to  pohtical  sovereignty,  but  also  from  that  bad  in- 
stitution of  hers,  the  stratification  of  society  into  rich 
and  poor.  Here  on  new  soil,  start  a  new  epoch  for  the 
human  race. 

The  common  people,  in  something  like  seven  out  of 
the  thirteen  States,  proceeded  to  capture  control  of  their 
legislatures,  and  to  carry  out  these  aspirations.  Their 
proposals,  however,  were  nothing  like  so  drastic  as  Solon's 
decree,  or  the  Bible's  Year  of  Jubilee.  The  popular 
program  took  largely  the  form  of  agrarian  laws,  such  as 
the  Gracchi,  those  tribunes  for  the  people,  had  sought  to 
estabUsh  at  Rome.  The  farmers  and  the  wage-earning 
class  here  obtained  for  their  cause  a  majority  in  the  legis- 


202  THE  FREE  CITY 

latures  —  sovereign  legislatures,  with  no  appeal  to  a 
far-away  supreme  court  in  Washington  and  whose 
repressions  could  be  enforced  by  a  national  guard.  They 
passed  laws  making  money  more  plentiful.  Thereby  the 
debtor  class  would  have  been  enabled  to  pay  off  their 
debts  more  quickly;  and  so  get  the  new  regime  of  human 
brotherhood  in  operation. 

It  was  nothing  more  than  that,  this  move  by  the  popular 
mass.  Yet,  in  the  school  histories,  it  has  called  down 
upon  itself  such  epithets  as  wildness,  insurgency,  rebel- 
lion, confiscatory  anarchism.  "Shays'  RebeUion"  is  cited 
by  them  as  proof  that  our  forefathers,  intoxicated  by  the 
new  wine  of  liberty,  were  incapable  of  self-government. 
The  documentary  testimony  of  General  Lincoln,  who 
commanded  the  Massachusetts  militia  sent  against  Shay^, 
certainly  is  authentic.  He  says  that  Shays'  "desperate 
debtors"  had  this  for  their  motive:  to  "bring  into  the 
legislature  creatures  of  their  own,  by  which  they  would 
make  a  government  at  pleasure,  and  make  it  subservient 
to  all  their  purposes."  Has  there  ever  been  a  more  exact 
definition  of  democracy?  and  struck  off,  too,  by  its  avowed 
enemy:  "To  make  the  legislature  subservient  to  all  their 
purposes."  In  Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire  there 
were  also  fermentations  among  the  workingclass;  but 
to  an  even  less  degree  than  the  mild  Shays  affair  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. All  of  these  commotions  were  so  innocent 
of  any  attempt  at  violence  that,  for  blood  letting  and 
turbulence,  they  do  not  compare  with  a  strike  in  a  mod- 
ern industrial  center.  I  cannot  find  that  bloodshed  any- 
where, to  the  extent  of  a  single  life,  took  place.  And  yet 
"Shays'  Rebellion,"  with  the  popular  commotions  in  the 
adjoining  states,  was  the  cause  why  self-government  was 
taken  from  the  American  people,  and  invisible  govern- 
ment in  a  far-distant  capital  was  substituted  in  its  place. 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      203 

Read  this  letter,  written  by  General  Knox,  one  of  the 
creditor  class,  to  Washington: 

"The  insurgents,"  designating  the  Shaysites,  "feel 
their  own  poverty,  compared  with  the  opulent;  and  their 
own  force.  And  they  are  determined  to  make  use  of  the 
latter,  in  order  to  remedy  the  former.  Their  creed  is, 
That  the  property  of  the  United  States  has  been  protected 
from  the  confiscation  of  Britain  by  the  joint  exertions  of 
all;  and  therefore  ought  to  be  the  common  property  of 
all.  And  he  that  attempts  opposition  to  this  creed  is  an 
enemy  to  equity  and  justice,  and  ought  to  be  swept  from 
off  the  face  of  the  earth.  In  a  word  they  are  determined 
to  annihilate  all  debts,  and  have  agrarian  laws.  To  them 
may  be  collected  people  of  similar  sentiments  from  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire,  so  as  to  con- 
stitute a  body  of  desperate  and  unprincipled  men.  They 
are  chiefly  of  the  young  and  active  part  of  the  community; 
more  easily  collected  than  perhaps  kept  together  after- 
wards. But  once  embodied,  they  will  be  compelled  to 
submit  to  discipUne.  Having  proceeded  to  this  length, 
for  which  they  are  now  ripe,  we  shall  have  a  formidable 
rebeUion.  This  dreadful  situation  has  alarmed  every 
man  of  principle  and  property  in  New  England.  Our 
government  must  be  braced,  changed,  or  altered  to  secure 
our  lives  and  property.  The  men  of  reflection  and  prin- 
ciple are  determined  to  establish  a  government  which 
shall  have  the  power  to  protect  them,  and  which  will  be 
efl&cient  in  all  cases  of  internal  commotions.  They  wish 
for  a  general  government  of  unity,  as  they  see  the  local 
legislatures  must  naturally  and  necessarily  tend  to  frus- 
trate all  general  government."    This  was  in  1786. 

In  a  letter  the  next  year,  Madison  wrote:  "The  late 
turbulent  scenes  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 
have  done  inexpressible  injury  to  the  repubUcan  character 


204  THE  FREE  CITY 

in  that  part  of  the  United  States.  And  a  propensity 
towards  Monarchy  is  said  to  have  been  produced  by  it 
in  some  leading  minds."  A  few  days  after,  John  Arm- 
strong, in  a  letter  to  Washington,  more  than  hinted  it: 
"  Shall  I  tell  you  ia  confidence,  I  have  now  twice  heard  — 
nor  from  low  authority  —  some  principal  men  begin 
to  talk  of  wishing  one  general  Head  to  the  Union,  in  the 
room  of  Congress."  Hamilton,  the  special  pleader  of 
the  rich,  was  not  long  in  reverberating  the  news,  and 
pointing  the  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  it:  "The  tempestu- 
ous situation  from  which  Massachusetts  has  scarcely 
emerged,  evinces  that  dangers  of  this  kind  are  not  merely 
speculative."  Accordingly,  said  he,  there  must  be  set 
up  a  strong  central  arm  of  government,  "  a  guarantee  by 
the  national  authority." 

Patrick  Henry  and  Samuel  Adams  led  the  opposition  to 
the  new  Constitution,  pointing  out  the  "elective  des- 
potism" it  was  seeking  to  establish.  Henry  exclaimed 
against  the  monstrous  idea:  "One  power  to  reign  with  a 
strong  hand  over  so  extensive  a  country  as  this!"  (Amer- 
ica then  consisted  only  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.)  Taylor, 
one  of  the  pamphleteers  against  the  nationalist  scheme, 
wanted  to  know  how  this  new  aristocracy  of  wealth  would 
differ  from  the  aristocracy  of  name  which  they  had  just 
fought  England  to  get  free  from:  "Which  is  more  to  be 
dreaded,  titles  without  wealth,  or  wealth  without  titles? 
Exorbitant  wealth  constitutes  the  substance  of  aristoc- 
racy. Money  is  power.  If  we  execrate  the  shadow, 
what  epithet  is  too  hard  for  an  administration  which  is 
laboring  to  introduce  the  substance?" 

But  the  "Anglo-monarchic  aristocratic  faction"  —  as 
these  nationahsts  were  termed  —  triumphed.  In  the 
ratifying  fight  on  the  Constitution,  the  opulent  of  Boston 
warned  Samuel  Adams:    "Any  vote  of  a  delegate  from 


NOW  IN  THE  WORLD'S  REMAKING      205 

Boston  against  adopting  it  would  be  contrary  to  the  in- 
terests, feelings  and  wishes  of  the  tradesmen  of  the  town." 
Similar  tactics  were  adopted  in  other  states.  The  new 
Constitution  got  itself  enacted.  "Could  there  have  been 
a  counting  of  heads  the  country  through,"  says  Woodiow 
Wilson  in  his  history,  "a  majority  would  have  been  foimd 
opposed  to  the  Constitution;  but  the  men  who  were  its 
active  and  efl&cient  advocates  lived  at  the  centers  of  popu- 
lation, had  the  best  concert  of  action,  filled  the  mails  and 
the  pubUc  prints  with  their  writings,  were  very  formidable 
in  debate,  and  full  of  tactical  resources." 

Thus  was  set  up  in  America  a  governing  class;  profes- 
sional poUticians  governing  us  from  a  central  seat  of 
power,  in  the  obscurantism  of  vast  impenetrable  dis- 
tance. This  governing  class  is  authorized  by  consti- 
tutional provision  to  ride  over  the  heads  of  the  local 
authorities  in  every  essential  of  sovereignty.  By  means 
of  its  own  Supreme  Court,  located  also  in  that  far-away 
capital,  it  was  made  the  sole  judge  of  its  powers  and 
jurisdiction.  And  there  was  provided  a  standing  army 
to  enforce  whatsoever  this  far-distant  government  de- 
creed. So  was  estabUshed  the  dogma  of  governmental 
invisibihty,  as  America's  contribution  to  the  Kingdom 
of  God  upon  earth. 

By  means  of  it,  local  traditions  in  America  have  been 
destroyed.  Our  civic  firesides  are  cold.  The  graves  of 
our  sires  awake  no  thrill,  fuse  om*  hearts  into  no  soli- 
darity. We  feel  naught  of  attachment  to  the  soil.  Bedou- 
ins and  rovers  are  we.  Roving  in  vestibuled  trains,  to 
be  sure;  but  rovers,  none  the  less.  The  American  city?  a 
horde  of  profit-seekers  transiently  assembhng  themselves, 
and  now  on  their  way  to  become  kilkenny  cats.  Large 
are  we  in  material  importance;  slender,  in  artistic  achieve- 
ment.   Freebooters   appear  —  as  always,  in  dark  ages. 


206  THE  FREE  CITY 

The  gospel  of  greed  is  openly  indoctrinated.  We  have  all 
eaten  of  the  insane  root.  We  hear  the  grindings  of  an  im- 
perialist machine  that  will  crush  the  individual  into  pulp. 

God  would  not  take  one  star  from  the  American  flag; 
to  the  contrary  He  would  add  a  thousand  more  —  kindred 
communities,  co-equal  in  sovereignty,  a  universal  and 
democratic  dominion  with  filaments  of  friendship  over- 
spanning  the  globe.  MunicipaUty  is  a  stupendous  pro- 
gram. But  we  are  Hving  in  a  stupendous  moment.  The 
evil  days  are  drawing  nigh;  temporizing  expedients  are 
severely  disallowed.  Nationalism  is  the  nightmare  of 
history  —  the  attempt  of  a  bureaucracy  to  administer  the 
workers,  instead  of  permitting  the  workers  to  administer 
themselves.  It  has  remained  for  Christendom  to  present 
the  spectacle  of  destruction  scientifically  engineered, 
murder's  consmnmate  pattern  and  masterpiece.  Nations 
are  a  homicidal  mania;  a  subordination  of  ideal  ends  to 
commercial  poUcy,  which  policy  can  only  end  in  warfare. 
Nationalism  has  prevailed  ever  since  modem  society 
went  erring  after  the  false  gods  of  Venice  and  Tyre.  Let 
the  decline  continue,  Earth  will  become  a  mortuary  car, 
and  the  round  world  a  mausoleum.  Peace?  So  long  as 
the  workshops  are  unfree,  a  treaty  of  peace  contrives  a 
peace  that  is  no  peace;  and  the  ravens  are  hoarse  that 
croak  its  coming. 

It  is  not  too  late  to  retrieve  our  civiUzation.  Munic- 
ipaUty can  reintegrate  men  into  the  social  bond;  has 
power  to  reknit  the  ravelled  fabric;  that  the  morrow  of 
mankind  may  be  glorious.  The  classic  world  inculcated 
it,  all  the  noble  ages  have  re-echoed  it,  this  day  of  thunder 
and  eclipse  must  heed  it:  the  Free  City,  sovereign  above 
all  crowns  and  kingdoms,  a  lacework  of  industrial  so- 
cieties in  confederation  scopeful  as  the  arms  of  the  god- 
head, to  embrace  the  habitable  territories  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CARA  P ATRIA,  CARIOR  LI  BERT  AS 

WAR  is  caused  by  inattention  to  government. 
Famine,  pestilence,  graft,  and  immorality  are 
caused  by  inattention  to  government.  The 
Luminous  Ages  have  been  signallized  by  a  pubhc-minded- 
ness  in  the  people;  a  folk  who  paid  attention  to  their 
collective  transactions.  The  Dull  Ages  have  always  been 
marked  by  a  private  mind  in  the  people.  Animals  are 
private-minded.  The  human  eras  in  history,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  animal  eras,  have  witnessed  in  man  a 
social  description  of  heart  and  mind. 

In  order  to  arouse  in  the  people  of  America  a  pub- 
lic consciousness,  and  so  transform  the  human  animal 
into  a  human  being,  "Citizenship  Campaigns"  are  being 
inaugurated.  We  see  them  taking  the  form  of  city  clubs, 
independence  leagues,  neighborhood  associations,  civic 
alliances;  committees  and  societies  of  many  names  but 
with  a  common  purpose;  to  awaken  the  people  from  their 
egoistic  absorption  into  a  concern  for  government.  Prob- 
ably the  finest  idealism  of  our  day  is  here  engaged.  To 
supplant  private-heartedness  by  public-heartedness  is  to 
broaden  the  mind,  curb  the  appetites,  refine  the  conver- 
sation, tighten  the  cords  of  the  will,  ennoble  and  heighten 
and  strengthen  all  of  man's  life.  Therefore  one  can  only 
lament  the  ill  success  which  these  evangeUsts  of  good 
government  are  meeting.    Selfishness  in  America  is  on 

207 


208  THE  FREE  CITY 

the  increase.  The  percentage  of  grammar  school,  high 
school,  and  college  graduates  who  are  dedicating  them- 
selves to  careers  of  altruistic  service  is  steadily  declining. 
"Percentage,"  I  say.  The  absolute  number  may  be  in- 
creasing. But  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  population, 
it  is  decreasing.  The  tides  of  self-aggrandizement  are 
sweeping  more  and  more  torrentially.  Each  year,  less 
of  American  youth  prefer  the  work  that  is  purely  service- 
able to  work  that  is  lucrative. 

The  poUtical  fabric  in  America  is  not  designed  to 
produce  public-spirited  men  and  women.  Amateur  social 
workers  and  altruistic  committees  proceed  on  the  notion 
that  preaching  to  and  pleading  with  the  people,  wUl 
produce  an  alert  populace.  Our  Constitution  does  not 
encourage  in  the  people  an  active  and  constant  thought 
toward  the  government.  To  the  contrary.  Under  the 
confederation,  the  Thirteen  States  were  proceeding 
prosperously,  except  in  that  one  respect:  the  common 
people  were  participating  overmuch  in  the  affairs  of  state. 
In  order  to  call  a  halt  on  that  propensity  and  close  the 
minds  of  the  people  within  their  private  affairs,  Hamilton 
and  his  men  wrested  away  the  seat  of  sovereignty  from 
the  neighborhoods  where  the  people  hved,  and  fixed  it  in 
a  distant  spot;  whereby  government  has  become  an 
esoteric  thing,  operating  upon  the  multitude  from  afar, 
invisible  as  choke  damp,  invulnerable  as  a  mist. 

That  Constitution  has  shaped  American  life  into  its 
image.  Could  not  help  but  do  so.  Let  me  fashion  the 
governmental  fabric,  I  care  not  who  fashions  the  residue 
of  man's  life.  The  pohtical  form  determines  everything 
else.  Associate  people  in  this  maimer  or  in  that,  their 
thoughts  and  sentiments  and  wills,  their  doings  by  day 
and  their  dreamings  in  the  night,  will  be  shaped  in  con- 
formity   therewith.    Theology,   ethics,    psychology,    the 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        209 

physical  sciences,  art,  industry  —  all  of  these  are  branches 
of  pohtical  science.  The  state  is  the  totaHty,  of  which 
everything  else  in  heaven  and  earth  is  a  part.  Even  the 
stars  in  their  courses  will  be  related  to  a  people  according 
to  the  manner  in  which  those  people  are  related  to  each 
other. 

That  Americans  have  become  the  most  private-minded 
folk  in  Christendom,  is  not  surprising.  Our  Constitution 
establishes  the  most  highly  centrahzed  fabric  of  govern- 
ment on  the  face  of  the  earth.  In  the  celebrated  case  of 
Cohens  v.  Virginia,  John  Marshall  said  of  the  States: 
"They  are  members  of  one  great  empire."  The  rulership 
has  been  lifted  out  of  our  hands,  given  over  into  the  keep- 
ing of  a  professional  class.  Debarred  thus  from  growing 
a  governmental  consciousness,  the  people  have  remained 
down  on  the  ego  plane.  This  shunting  of  the  life  power 
into  self-centeredness  has  accumulated  in  Americans  a 
high-voltage  privateering,  more  tigerish  and  ravening 
than  was  ever  seen  in  any  other  time  or  place.  So  long 
as  these  voracities  could  flow  off  into  free  land  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  not  much  of  friction  or  colhdings  were  felt. 
Now,  with  the  damming  back  upon  itself  of  this  privateer- 
ing mania,  the  Donnybrook  Fair  and  universal  scrimmage 
is  commencing.  We  look  forth  on  a  day  of  dissolution,  a 
decomposing  of  society  into  fractional  things  called  egos. 
As  one  gazes  upon  the  spectacle,  one  gets  the  impression 
of  a  planet  shivering  into  asteroids. 

IndividuaUsm  is  the  opposite  of  civiUzation.  It  is  the 
code  of  the  jungle,  as  contrasted  with  the  neighborly  and 
benignant  institutes  of  civil  society.  If  civiHzation  is  to 
continue  in  America,  a  social  mind  will  have  to  replace 
the  ego  mind.  Sentimental  endeavor  will  not  effect  that 
change.  Exhortations  to  good  citizenship  are  as  the 
lighting  of  a  torch  to  turn  night  into  day.    Though  we 


210  THE  FREE  CITY 

kindle  many  a  bonfire,  the  shadows  will  gather  deep  and 
deeper.  The  night  can  be  dispelled  only  by  wheeling  the 
earth  back  into  the  sun.  A  large  state  means  an  ego- 
centric society.  A  small  state  means  a  commmio-centric 
society.  Night  will  endure,  until  nationahty  gives  way 
to  municipality. 

Our  Constitution  makes  for  political  quietism.  Munic- 
ipaUty  makes  people  diligent.  Nationahty  makes  them 
docile.  Democracy  means  self-ownership:  a  community 
cherishing  inviolable  frontiers,  hving  a  unique  life,  work- 
ing out  an  undictated  destiny.  America  has  prohibited  a 
democratic  form  of  society;  has  constitutionalized  a 
bureaucratic  form  of  society.  Which  is  not  to  blaspheme 
the  bureaucrats.  They  are  fettered  in  the  same  chain 
wherewith  they  fetter  us.  God  help  us  all,  we  have  every- 
one been  caught  in  the  evil  web,  we  are  all  tarred  with 
the  same  culpability.  There  is  one  thing  more  dis- 
reputable than  to  be  ruled  by  poUticians;  and  that  is, 
to  be  one  of  those  politicians.  Washington  is  an  arti- 
ficial city,  the  capital  of  an  artificial  civiUzation.  But 
even  an  artificial  civiHzation  is  better  than  no  civilization. 
Until  a  different  poUtical  structure  is  instituted,  our 
bureaucrats  will  have  to  continue  their  graceless  iUiberal 
task. 

Nationalism  is  not  grounded  in  self-government;  it  is 
grounded  in  representative  government,  that  is  to  say, 
in  poUticianism.  An  imperator,  elected  to  serve  four 
years,  is  during  those  four  years  an  imperator.  And  if, 
at  that  expiration,  another  be  elected,  is  it  not  an  impera- 
torship  perpetual?  The  fact  that  we  sign  away  our 
freedom  voluntarily,  does  not  condone  the  perfidy  of  the 
deed  but  blackens  it.  To  be  under  a  king  is  better  than 
to  be  under  a  capitaUst;  for  at  least  the  people  did  not 
vote  the  chains  upon  their  wrists  and  leg  bones.     Op- 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS       211 

pression  by  the  consent  of  the  oppressed  —  is  it  not  the 
most  entirely  damned  condition  a  people  can  get  into? 

It  is  difficult  to  treat  of  these  things,  in  a  book  addressed 
to  moderns.  The  people  have  departed  so  widely  and 
through  so  long  time  now  from  the  principle  of  civic 
freedom  that  they  have  lost  the  very  concept  of  it.  Those 
grooves  of  thought,  worn  by  the  heroism  of  high-spirited 
forefathers,  have  become  filled  up.  With  the  average 
American,  representative  government  has  been  inoculated 
into  his  system  by  subtle  indoctrination  through  one 
hundred  and  thirty  years.  Modern  man  has  lost  not 
only  the  remembrance  but  even  the  reUsh  of  hberty;  as  a 
drunkard's  palate,  inured  to  artificial  Uquids,  gets  after  a 
time  to  find  spring  water  a  tasteless  and  unnatural  drink, 

PoUticians  are  corrupt  —  and  ought  to  be.  A  people 
so  immersed  in  private  affairs  that  they  have  no  time  for 
pubUc  business,  do  not  deserve  to  have  that  pubUc  busi- 
ness attended  to.  Representative  government  means 
that  the  mass  of  the  people  are  busy  with  private  gainings. 
Then  why  may  not  the  pohticians  also  go  in  for  private 
gainings?  When  the  people  are  out  for  their  own  pockets 
all  the  time,  why  may  not  the  hired  representatives  of 
that  people  likewise  be  out  for  their  own  pockets  all  the 
time?  Politicianism  is  God's  punishment  upon  a  people 
engrossed  in  selfishness.  The  politician  who  steals  is  not 
hated  of  the  Upper  Powers.  If  pohticians  were  honest 
it  would  be  a  ciu^e  to  the  human  race.  Because  then  the 
people  would  forget  their  responsibihty  for  the  state, 
would  lapse  comfortably  into  egoistic  sloth;  and  self- 
government  would  perish  everlastingly.  The  pohtical 
corruption  that  is  scourging  America  is  of  God's  doing. 
The  boss  and  the  boodler  are  a  cat-o'-nine-tails  in  the 
hands  of  a  merciful  Father  in  heaven,  to  chastise  His 
disobedient  but  well-beloved  America. 


212  THE  FREE  CITY 

Politicians  have  a  charter  from  heaven  to  steal  with 
both  hands.  When  the  people  are  private-minded,  the 
ofl&ce-holders  are  going  to  be  private-minded  also.  Cer- 
tainly, stealing  is  inmioral.  But  seK-aggrandizement  is 
immoral  too.  The  same  Book  that  forbids  the  one,  issues 
an  equally  thunderous  veto  against  the  other.  The  com- 
merciahst  profit-hunter  is  of  one  stripe  with  gangsters 
that  nest  in  Congress  lobbies  —  profiteers,  both  of  them. 
Mercantile  extortioners  and  pohtical  boodlers  are  under 
one  and  the  same  condemnation.  Why  should  we  ask 
a  pohtician  to  die  poor,  when  the  people  who  elected  him 
to  office  are  heaping  barrels  of  money?  A  people  so 
sunk  in  privateering  that  they  entrust  their  pubUc  af- 
fairs to  an  officialdom,  must  not  be  offended  when  those 
officials  do  some  privateering  on  their  own  account. 
How,  how  mistaken,  the  notion  that  office-holders  will  be 
altruistic,  when  the  people  are  avaricious! 

Representative  government  is  invisible  government. 
And  the  invisibility  increases  with  the  size  of  the  state. 
In  Massachusetts  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  we 
saw  that,  though  government  by  a  direct  assembUng  of 
the  people  was  impossible,  nevertheless  the  seat  of  that 
government  was  so  close  to  the  homes  of  the  people  that, 
through  Shays  and  his  men,  they  could  get  their  will 
accomplished.  Per  contra,  a  sovereignty  that  embraces 
three  thousand  miles  of  territory  —  thrice  the  area  of  the 
Roman  Empire  —  is  the  perfection  of  invisibihty.  At  so 
great  a  remove  from  those  who  elected  them,  office-holders 
will  act  on  the  same  principle  as  those  who  sent  them  to 
that  far  away  spot;  for  their  own  profit,  first,  last  and  all 
the  time.  Otherwise  they  would  not  truly  "represent" 
their  people.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  world,  repre- 
sentative government  never  represented  anything  except 
the    money    power.    Invisible    government    is    always 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        213 

malevolent  to  liberty.  We  have  got  to  stop  blaming  the 
poUtician,  and  apportion  the  guilt  where  it  belongs. 
Self-seeking  by  merchants  and  plumbers  and  manu- 
facturers, is  quite  as  heinous  in  the  eyes  of  heaven  as  self- 
seeking  by  a  pohtical  boss.  Representative  government 
means  ruthlessness  for  material  success.  In  which  game 
the  place-holders,  bitten  by  the  same  mania,  will  prove 
quite  as  adept  as  the  materialists  who  elected  them. 

Some  have  the  idea  that  "invisible  government"  is  an 
inexact  phrase;  because  the  people  do  the  electing,  and 
can  choose  whom  they  wish.  But  they  do  the  electing 
—  if  the  geographical  area  be  large  —  through  pohtical 
parties,  the  management  of  which  is  also  invisible.  Con- 
trive a  thousand  devices.  Direct  Primary,  what  you  will, 
representative  government  is  machine  government.  Elec- 
tion Day  is  but  a  reshuffling  of  the  same  crooked  deck. 
"Initiative,  Referendum  and  Recall!"  "Recall"  gives 
to  the  people  the  privilege  of  calling  back  one  pohtician, 
and  sending  another  pohtician  in  his  place.  "Referen- 
diim  and  Initiative"  mean,  government  by  post  card. 
They  who  think  that  three  thousand  miles  of  people  can 
concert  a  daily  administration  of  their  affairs  by  means 
of  postal  cards,  think  sentimentally.  To  annihilate  miU- 
tarism,  the  people  must  control  not  only  the  war  power 
but  also  the  diplomatizings  that  lead  up  to  war.  And 
that  means  a  quick  and  constant  deciding  of  decisions. 
Can  three  thousand  miles  of  people  decide  decisions 
quickly  and  constantly?  For  civil  hberty,  a  castle  of 
post  cards  builds  quite  too  pregnable  a  fortress. 

Bad  visibihty  is  the  cause  of  our  pubhc  apathy.  As  the 
distance  of  the  capital  city  from  the  homes  of  the  people 
increases,  the  visibility  becomes  worse.  Distance  is  of 
all  obscurations  the  most  effectual.  No  wall  so  imper- 
vious, no  curtains  of  secrecy  so  complete,  as  miles  of  in- 


214  THE  FREE  CITY 

tervening  space.  To  nationalize  means,  to  remove  the 
seat  of  power  far  from  the  people.  To  mmiicipalize 
means,  to  bring  the  seat  of  power  back  towards  the  people. 
The  smaller  the  state  —  down  to  the  point  of  self -subsist- 
ence—  the  more  democracy.  The  larger  the  state,  the 
more  plutocracy.  Only  in  big  states  can  be  found  the 
greatly  rich.  The  size  of  the  state,  and  the  size  of 
the  millionairic  fortunes  within  that  state,  always  keep 
step  with  each  other. 

As  the  state  enlarges,  democracy  diminishes.  Bureau- 
cracy is  the  confiscation  of  hberty.  Home  rule  is  heaven; 
delegated  rule  is  hell,  a  hell  seven  times  heated,  and 
growing  hotter.  Under  nationahty,  the  government 
owns  the  people.  Under  municipaHty,  the  people  own 
the  government.  Than  America,  there  is  no  other  spot 
in  Christendom  where  government  is  more  subterranean, 
and  where  the  masses  Hve  so  dispiritedly.  Moses  tmned 
the  waters  of  Egypt  into  blood;  Alexander  Hamilton 
turned  the  blood  of  Americans  into  water.  The  fate  of  a 
hundred  miUion  people  emanates  from  a  government 
oflfice.  So  there  has  arisen  in  the  multitudes  a  quality  of 
fatalism.  Government  is  private  to  seven  or  eight.  Why 
should  a  comjnon  man  concern  himself  with  matters  too 
high  for  him? 

Representative  government  is  impeached  of  the  high 
crime  and  misdemeanor  of  poisoning  the  wellsprings  of 
civilization.  It  is  the  most  subtle  form  into  which 
empire  can  be  thrown.  It  permits  big-business,  safe- 
guarded behind  a  screen  of  inscrutability,  to  exact  the 
maximum  of  tribute  with  the  minimum  of  accountability. 
It  has  fostered  in  the  people  a  dereliction  of  pubUc  duty, 
so  that  they  have  to  be  dragged  to  the  polls,  or  coaxed 
by  chowder  parties.  It  has  gelded  the  people  of  their 
manhood;    has  blasted  them  into  torpor  of  soul,  the 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        215 

lethargy  that  creeps  through  the  moral  system  when 
people  accept  a  fate  not  of  their  own  making.  MoraUty 
is  mastery  over  impulse;  a  capacity  in  the  people  of  judg- 
ing and  acting  for  themselves.  Self-government  engen- 
dered that  capacity  in  our  forefathers.  Representative 
government  is  destroying  it  in  their  children.  In  sup- 
planting democracy  with  bureaucracy,  it  has  infected  all 
the  processes  of  life.  So  that  the  idea  of  the  State  has 
wellnigh  dropped  out  of  modern  consciousness.  The 
sense  of  a  social  bond  is  disappearing.  Our  cities  are  not 
cities,  but  a  piggery  of  people  attracted  thither  by  the 
rattle  of  the  feed-trough,  and  rushing  down  to  Gadarene 
disaster.  Commercial  imperialism  has  Uberated  in  the 
American  heart  a  rapacity  for  gain;  instead  of  celestial 
co-operation,  we  have  the  hyena  creed  of  competition. 
A  madhouse  bedlam.  One  hundred  millions  of  people 
with  but  one  thought:  to  bite  and  devour  each  other. 

Nationalism  means  great-monied  men  stronger  than 
the  laws.  And  we  saw  that  it  was  done  wantonly  by 
Hamilton  and  his  coterie,  to  swell  the  hallelujah  chorus 
of  the  rich.  In  a  national  state,  the  governors  and  the 
governed  are  not  the  same  people.  In  a  municipal  state, 
the  governors  and  the  governed  are  the  same  people. 
Therefore  municipal  government  is  free  government. 
The  municipahty  is  the  natural  guardian  of  the  people. 
It  is  there  that  the  problems  of  life  have  their  intimate 
and  familiar  seat.  Redemption  works  never  at  long  dis- 
tance or  by  absent  treatment.  The  community  is  our 
Generatrice,  and  our  Protectress.  In  the  days  of  her 
sovereignty,  she  has  always  been  of  fierce  and  overmaster- 
ing affection  for  her  own.  No  creature  so  ferocious  as  a 
mother  if,  when  her  babes  are  milking  her,  danger  draws 
near  to  threaten  them.  But  now  the  municipahty  is 
helpless.    Her  power  has  been  taken  from  her;  has  been 


216  THE  FREE  CITY 

lodged  in  a  government  hundreds  of  miles  away  from  us; 
whose  efforts  to  save  the  people  are  as  if  a  surgeon  should 
treat  a  grievously  wounded  man,  by  long  distance  tele- 
phone. The  towns  are  La  subordination  to  continental 
grandees;  and  the  American  city  sits,  disarmed,  fettered, 
manacled.  In  this  her  pitiable  estate,  she  is  of  no  more 
protection  to  her  children  than  an  ant  hill  when  the  ant- 
eater  darts  in  his  all-searching  sinewy  tongue. 

Not  brick  nor  steel  nor  street  lamps  nor  sewers,  but 
sovereignty  is  the  first  requisite  to  the  building  of  a  city. 
Let  her  confide  to  a  power  outside  of  her  the  spindle  and 
shears  of  destiny,  she  no  longer  has  prestige  to  mesmerize 
her  people  into  obedience,  or  charm  them  into  eager 
fidelity.  Her  councils  then  are  but  a  debating  society. 
Adult  men  will  not  interest  themselves  ia  a  debating 
society.  "Succor  and  esteem  the  civil  authority!"  But 
under  nationaUsm  that  civil  authority  becomes  a  junta 
of  pohticians,  far-distant  and  suspected.  So  that  the 
social  compact  is  being  undennined.  Men  are  casting  to 
the  winds  obedience,  honor,  respect,  and  loyalties.  Mer- 
cenary madness  is  epidemic.  Cupidity  calls  the  tune,  to 
which  both  the  opulent  and  the  lowly  are  dancing.  More 
and  more  the  people  are  inattentive  to  their  kingly  and 
dear-bought  prerogatives  of  hberty.  A  sheer  deviltry  of 
self-enrichment.  Instead  of  cities  we  see  a  meshwork  of 
maggots,  each  of  them  positively  believing  that  it  is  more 
blessed  to  receive  than  to  give. 

Social  enthusiasts  marvel  that  people  are  so  apathetic 
to  their  neighborhood  duties.  But  without  war  power, 
coinage,  and  foreign  relations,  a  community  is  not  a  com- 
mimity.  The  amount  of  self-government  accorded  to  the 
cities  under  our  Constitution  is  of  a  piece  with  that 
generous  reply  of  the  parent  to  his  child  wishing  to  go 
swimming: 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        217 

Yes  my  darling  daughter; 

Hang  your  clothes  on  a  hickory  limb, 
But  don't  go  near  the  waJter. 

Our  communities  have  "  self-government,"  in  that  they 
are  permitted  to  decide  for  themselves  whether  they  shall 
pave  their  streets  with  asphalt  or  cobble  stones.  And 
then  we  wonder  why  strong  men  no  longer  interest  them- 
selves in  civic  affairs.  Deprived  of  sovereignty,  it  is  not 
very  important  to  a  community  whether  its  highways 
be  paved  with  asphalt  or  with  cobble  stones,  or  with 
neither.  A  servitude  decked  out  with  asphalt  or  cobble 
stones  —  is  it  not  a  servitude  still? 

Municipahty  wins  the  people  to  an  interest  in  the  State, 
by  turning  over  to  them  the  proprietorship  of  the  State. 
It  makes  them  shareholders  in  a  poUtical  partnership. 
In  a  small  republic  the  citizens  are  personally  members 
of  the  board  of  directorate.  SeK-activity  is  aroused: 
an  enthusiasm  for,  and  conversancy  with  public  affairs. 
Aristocracies,  when  they  have  deserved  that  high  title, 
have  been  a  set  of  people  who  stood  up  for  the  public. 
In  a  very  real  way  a  municipal  commonwealth  makes  the 
citizens  aristocrats;  exalts  the  lowhest  of  them  to  be 
bondholders  and  directors  in  the  State.  George  EUot's 
"Romola, "  making  a  Florentine  barber  in  his  citizen's 
cap  an  eager  participant  in  the  pubUc  questions  of  the  day, 
showed  fideUty  to  historical  fact.  The  people  of  Florence 
were  a  Committee  of  Public  Safety  in  perpetual  session. 
The  commimity  owning  itself  —  there  is  the  formula  of 
freedom  and  joy  and  nobihty  and  fellowship. 

With  socialists,  "internationalism"  is  a  word  to  con- 
jure strong  applause.  As  an  expression  of  world  brother- 
hood, the  term  is  beautiful.  But  it  belongs  in  the  realm 
of  social  science,  that  mirage  country  of  emotion  and 


218  THE  FREE  CITY 

preachment  and  dreamings.  When  one  leaves  that 
misty  reakn  for  the  hard  clear  region  of  political  science, 
one  no  longer  says  "internationalism"  but  "interurban- 
ism";  a  world  confederacy  of  small  republics.  Poli- 
ticianism  is  the  devil  that  is  destroying  us.  Would  a 
workingclass  poUticianism  be  of  a  different  breed?  Na- 
tionaUsm  is  government  of  the  many  by  the  few.  In- 
temationaUsm  would  be  government  of  the  very  many  by 
a  very  few.  There  is  one  thing  that  Wall  Street  likes 
better  than  nationalism;  and  that  is  internationahsm. 
A  World  State;  one  imperialistic  capital  ruling  all  the 
tracts  and  areas  of  the  globe!  Mankind  handed  over  into 
the  power  of  a  World  Committee,  with  wide  wastes  of 
ocean  separating  the  people  from  that  Conmiittee  — 
would  it  not  enthrone  a  tyranny  grinding  and  abusive 
beyond  describing?  Self-government  is  freedom.  Repre- 
sentative government  is  the  suicide  of  freedom.  Inter- 
mimicipalism  is  the  only  true  internationahsm.  World 
consciousness  is  the  superstructure,  of  which  community 
consciousness  must  be  the  foundation.  Until  a  man 
grows  big-spirited  enough  to  mow  the  weeds  and  clean 
the  crosswalk  in  front  of  his  house,  he  is  not  big  enough 
to  participate  in  a  world  directorate.  The  map  of  the 
world  is  a  mosaic  of  conmiunities.  Unify  the  com- 
munities, the  unification  of  the  world  will  take  care  of 
itself. 

An  enthusiastic  body  of  the  proletariat  has  broken 
away  from  the  Sociahst  parties  as  a  protest  against  poU- 
ticianism, or  "parUamentarism,"  as  it  is  termed  in  Europe. 
These  are  known  as  Syndicahsts.  They  demand  —  and 
justly  —  a  change  in  the  system  of  society,  instead  of  a 
mere  change  in  the  politicians  that  shall  administer  the 
present  society.  "Direct  Actionists,"  they  term  them- 
selves;   and  their  feud  with  the  "Political  Actionists" 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        219 

threatens  to  tear  the  labor  movement  asimder.  Munic- 
ipality would  imite  these  warring  factions.  A  municipal 
republic  proceeds  by  the  method  of  poUtical  direct  action. 
It  proclaims  the  principle  of  poUtical  government,  which 
means,  orderly  rule  by  majority  vote;  and  yet  it  tolerates 
no  pohticians  as  the  treacherous  channel  through  which 
alone  the  will  of  the  voters  now  can  function. 

MunicipaUty  supplants  the  poUtician  state  with  a 
democratic  state,  small  enough  so  that  the  citizen  says 
"L'^tat,  c'est  moi."  When  the  individual  says.  The 
State  and  I  are  one,  and  She  is  the  one,  in  that  moment 
the  animal  is  transformed  into  a  human  being.  In  Athens 
a  man  could  be  put  on  trial  and  punished  for  incivism, 
want  of  affection  to  the  State.  She  announced  that  a 
man  must  not  develop  interests  of  his  own,  apart  from  his 
interests  as  a  member  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
Narcissus  parable  —  a  man  hypnotized  with  self -contem- 
plation —  was  her  rebuke  of  the  lookingglass  code  of  con- 
duct; little  man  inflated  with  self-importancy.  The 
Free  City  breeds  active  citizenship,  a  life  lived  with 
pubhc  meaning  and  social  purpose.  *i 

To  the  extent  that  municipaUsm  flomishes,  poUti- 
cianism  perishes.  Even  under  city  commonwealths, 
participation  by  all  of  the  people  in  all  of  the  doings  of 
the  state  is  not  to  be  expected.  Athens,  the  most  entire 
democracy  yet  attained,  was  not  perfect.  Nor  will 
perfection  ever  be.  A  community,  complete  in  fellow- 
ship and  freedom,  with  all  of  the  people  a  himdred  per 
cent  pubUc-minded,  is  the  goal  of  the  universe.  It  will 
require  eternity  for  its  consummation.  All  that  we  can 
expect  to  do  is  to  travel  in  that  direction;  well  assured 
that  each  horizon  attained  will  disclose  a  further  sky-line, 
a  higher  perfection  on  beyond.  At  present  the  world  is 
travelling  in  the  opposite  direction,  toward  more  and  more 


220  THE  FREE  CITY 

politicianism  —  larger  and  larger  political  aggregates. 
That  is  another  way  of  saying,  we  are  in  an  era  of  deca- 
dence. To  turn,  and  set  our  faces  toward  municipaUty, 
will  start  humankind  on  the  Upward  Trail.  The  city 
repubUc  is  the  criterion  of  progress.  As  the  seat  of 
government  recedes  from  the  community,  Dollars  amal- 
gamate their  empire  with  coronation  and  great  might. 
As  the  seat  of  government  comes  back  toward  the  com- 
munity, the  people  regain  the  dominion,  the  power,  and 
the  glory.  The  clash  between  those  two  tendencies,  is 
the  drama  of  the  ages.  As  with  all  fences,  the  hedge  of 
civic  hberty  will  continually  need  repairs.  Like  to  a 
diUgent  Husbandman,  the  Spirit  of  Municipality  seeks 
daily  to  make  the  fence  horse-high,  bull-strong,  hog-tight. 

Nor  is  that  Husbandman  altogether  without  success, 
in  the  task  of  democracy  to  which  He  has  committed 
Himself.  Reports  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Manchester: 
"The  growth  of  municipal  responsibilities  illustrates  the 
irresistible  drift  of  pubKc  affairs.  The  democratic  ideal 
is  being  worked  out  through  municipaUties.  Com- 
munism and  sociaHsm,  words  of  terror  a  few  short  years 
ago,  are  finding  a  peaceful  solution  in  various  phases  of 
municipal  work.  For  what  are  free  hbraries,  art  galleries, 
baths,  parks,  technical  schools,  tramways,  but  commu- 
nistic efforts.  We  need  some  stimulus  to  quicken  our  sense 
of  the  value  of  mutual  helpfulness.  Some  day  men  will 
awake  to  the  immense  possibiUties  of  corporate  action; 
and  the  community  will  find  salvation,  not  in  the  patron- 
age and  gifts  of  the  wealthy,  but  in  the  combined  and 
intelligent  efforts  of  the  people  themselves." 

Also  in  the  reUgious  unrest  of  our  time,  signs  of  con- 
solation arise.  Palestine  was  wonderful.  But  America 
likewise  can  be  glorified  into  wonderfulness.  The  Bible 
is  the  grammar  of  poUtics.    Naught  but  City-worship 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS  221 

will  bring  a  revival  of  piety  and  religious  emotion.  "I 
say  no  man  has  ever  been  half  devout  enough,"  insisted 
Walt  Whitman;  "none  has  ever  yet  adored  or  worshipped 
half  enough.  I  say  that  the  real  and  permanent  grandeur 
of  these  States  must  be  their  reUgion;  otherwise  there  is 
no  real  and  permanent  grandeur."  Wheresoever  a  Free 
City  emerges,  is  thenceforth  the  world's  center  of  gravity. 
It  matters  not  how  far  into  the  backwoods,  or  how 
inclement  her  natm-al  setting.  Autonomy  is  of  so  wizard 
a  virtue,  it  can  transform  bleakness  into  beauty,  garnish 
a  desert  into  song  and  roses.  Self-government  is  the  out- 
ward sign,  of  which  fellowship  is  the  inward  reaUty.  And 
fellowship  is  the  core  of  the  cosmos.  Let  a  sovereign 
city  arise,  it  is  advertisement  that  the  hub  of  the  universe 
is  there  protruding.  It  will  build  a  Florence  in  the  sands 
of  Arizona,  a  Nuremburg  in  the  mule-lands  of  Missouri. 
Nq  stream  less  fitted  for  a  dramatic  role  in  history,  than 
reed-choked  diminutive  Jordan.  Yet  the  waters  of  it  are 
bottled  for  shipment  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  so  potent 
is  municipaUty  unto  a  landscape's  glorification. 

Christianity  is  a  persuasion  of  civil  freedom,  or  it  is 
nothing.  In  self-government  all  moraUties  and  all  spirit- 
uaUties  lie  germinant.  The  Comraimc  is  mandatory  upon 
us  by  dispensation  of  The  Eternal.  Not  easily  will  the 
boon  be  acquired.  If  the  cat  would  eat  fish  it  must  wet 
its  feet.  Between  the  big  commercial  state  and  the  small 
artistic  state,  is  an  immortal  conflict.  Empire  versus 
Self-determination!  Plutocracy  against  democracy!  the 
church  must  take  sides.  Scripture  tells  us  of  a  time  once 
when  the  saint  was  not  a  sap-head.  Religion  must  no 
longer  try  to  slink  through  the  world.  "Government  by 
the  consent  of  the  governed,"  is  the  modernistic  creed; 
and  because  of  it  we  behold  money's  immoderate  do- 
minion.   Government    by    the    governed,    is    Heaven's 


222  THE  FREE  CITY 

categorical  commandment;  obedience  to  which  has  illu- 
minated the  pages  of  history  with  the  epochs  we  brag 
of  most. 

Not  alone  in  Palestine  is  the  Father  Almighty  at  home. 
MunicipaUty  unfolds  a  liberal  and  expanded  view  of  the 
steppings  of  God  through  history.  In  Rome  He  had  a 
dwellingplace.  Attica  and  the  Gothic  communes  knew 
Him.  Under  various  names  He  was  known;  but  it  was 
He,  the  Spirit  of  Freedom;  very  God  of  very  God.  The 
Free  City  is  God's  attempt  to  build  for  Himself  a  habita- 
tion. More  than  once  the  winds  have  stormed  in  upon 
the  structure  and  tumbled  it.  But  with  inexhaustible 
patience  He  girds  Himself  anew  to  the  task.  The  Bible 
is  the  textbook  of  municipahty;  in  whose  cause  Lord 
Christ  was  wounded  unto  death.  I  wish  I  had  the  skull 
of  Jesus.  I'd  make  of  it  a  beaker  jfilled  with  the  wine  of 
life.  And  I'd  put  its  rim  to  the  lips  of  youth  upon  their 
21st  birthday;  to  consecrate  them  in  that  bowl  to  an 
emulation  of  the  most  entire  Patriot  of  which  history 
preserves  the  record.  I'd  bid  each  of  them  drain  the 
goblet,  and  pledge  therein  his  city's  honor,  a  fame  of 
majesty  for  her,  hberal  sovereignty,  and  grandeur  long- 
lasting  as  the  sun. 

The  municipal  republic  is  the  one  article  of  faith  which 
no  skepticism  has  invaUdated.  The  only  praise  and  worth 
is  citizenship,  in  whose  focus  all  the  moraUties  stand  com- 
prehended. To  him  who  is  a  good  citizen,  every  other 
fault  will  be  remitted.  But  he  who  is  neghgent  toward 
his  city,  though  he  be  sainted  with  lesser  virtues  without 
number,  is  damned  beyond  the  reach  of  mercy.  Jerusalem 
was  a  municipal  republic.  In  order  to  reproduce  the 
spirituality  of  the  Bible,  we  must  reproduce  the  politi- 
cal form  under  which  those  Bible  folk  wrote  and 
wrought. 


CARA  PATRIA,  CARIOR  LIBERTAS        223 

Religion  cannot  forevermore  be  an  antiquarianism, 
something  exhumed  from  out  a  dusty  and  mildewed  past. 
Its  one  purpose  —  if  the  Bible  be  authentic  —  is  to  give 
a  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  city,  of  every  city;  in- 
spiring her  with  a  consciousness  of  her  statehood.  Self- 
government  is  Lord  God  functioning;  a  community 
resolved  to  listen  to  Him,  in  the  Within,  rather  than  to 
turn  its  ear  to  dictates  from  outside,  vox  populi,  vox 
DEI.  Democracy  is  Deity.  The  voice  of  a  free  people  is 
the  voice  of  the  Almighty;  concentrating  within  the  com- 
mune all  power,  authority,  and  dignities;  permitting  none 
to  have  jurisdiction  over  them  save  the  Prince  of  fellow- 
ship, to  walk  in  His  marvellous  light  forever.  So  will  be 
liberated  once  more  a  climate  salubrious  to  the  soul  and 
her  mansions,  as  mammonism's  fog  and  filthy  air  is  not. 
Except  the  city  of  men  be  a  City  of  God,  the  builders 
build  not  a  city  but  a  cock-pit. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY 

ART  is  territoriality  sublimated  into  a  temperament. 
It  is  a  segment  of  Natm-e,  soaking  up  into  and 
finding  expression  through  a  people  domiciled  in 
that  geographical  spot. 

Wherefore,  art  and  mimicipality  are  fellows.  The 
municipal  state  is  one  whose  boundaries  were  laid  out  by 
Nature.  National  boundaries,  knowing  chiefly  a  lust  of 
commercial  winnings,  stretch  themselves  irrespective  of 
natural  demarcation.  Within  that  huge  area  are  spoken 
a  diversity  of  languages,  by  peoples  of  diverse  bloods, 
dwelling  in  a  diversity  of  climates.  The  hodge-podge 
may  be  as  motley  as  the  American  nation.  No  matter. 
Inconsiderately,  the  nation  expands  the  boundary  to  in- 
clude the  conglomerate  mass;  for  it  is  based  on  but  one 
principle  of  unification:  a  universal  belief  that  man's  life 
consisteth  in  the  abundance  of  things  man  possesseth. 
So  long  as  that  creed  is  held,  the  nation  continues.  One 
faction  of  the  money-getters  may  overthrow  another 
faction.  It  is  but  a  change  of  administration.  So  long 
as  money-getting  is  the  dominant  goal,  the  principle  of 
nationality  has  nothing  to  fear.  It  is  when  there  emerges 
an  ideal  higher  than  self-enrichment,  nationalism  begins 
to  totter. 

Patriotism  is  the  adoration  of  locality.  That  is  why 
it  is  truly  met  with  only  under  a  mimicipal  ordering  of 

life.    The  patriot  is  one  who  adores  Nature.    A  man  can 

224 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     225 

adore  only  one  particular  wedge  of  Nature.  Adore,  I 
say.  He  can  admire  other  spots,  can  like  those  other 
spots,  can  wish  well  to  those  other  spots.  But  he  can 
adore  only  one.  And  that  is  the  spot  where  he  lives, 
where  his  fathers  Uved  before  him,  and  where  he  confides 
that  his  children  shall  live  after  him.  Patriotism  is 
geography  raised  to  the  boiling  point;  so  that  it  effer- 
vesces into  poetry  and  art  and  heroism.  There  is  not 
fire  enough  in  a  man's  heart  to  raise  a  multitude  of  land- 
scapes to  that  boiling  point.  To  achieve  so  high  a  tem- 
perature the  heat  must  be  concentrated.  In  comparison 
with  that  which  we  see  in  communes  like  Israel  or  Attica, 
huge  modern  states  present  but  a  pseudo-patriotism. 

Citizenship  is  city-worship.  And  by  "worship"  I 
mean  the  word  in  its  rapturous  and  kindling  sense.  A 
commercial  folk  can  get  along  in  the  realm  of  the  prosaic. 
An  artistic  civiHzation  can  nourish  itself  only  in  the 
kingdoms  of  the  subconscious  —  those  magical  empower- 
ments surging  up  without  call  or  bell.  Nature  heated  to 
incandescence  is  patriotism;  patriotism,  when  it  has 
achieved  coherency  of  expression,  is  genius.  Small 
states  have  produced  the  great  men.  Take  from  the 
roster  of  fame  the  names  written  there  by  municipal 
republics  (and  those  who  drew  their  inspiration  from 
municipal  repubhcs)  you  will  have  taken  away  all  of  the 
brilliances,  leaving  but  a  dinginess  of  mediocrity  to 
mark  man's  path  across  the  years.  A  fact  as  big  as  that 
happens  by  cause.  Some  deep  law  must  be  at  work.  And 
that  law  we  are  here  formulating.  Nature  is  the  uncon- 
scious. When  taken  up  into  our  tissues  and  medulla,  she 
becomes  the  subconscious.  And  that  subconscious  is  the 
intoxicating  realm  whose  afflatus  is  known  as  genius. 
Patriotism  is  this  intimacy  between  man  and  nature. 
To  achieve  it,  man  must  settle  down.    An  oak  tree  can 


226  THE  FREE  CITY 

be  transplanted,  and  still  live;  but  every  transplanting 
sets  it  back.  Men  are  trees  walking.  Quite  as  truly  as 
the  oak,  our  roots  reach  into  the  good  brown  soil.  Fre- 
quent pulling  up  of  roots  is  as  deleterious  to  human 
growth  as  to  tree  growth.  In  the  communal  ages,  when 
man  remained  rooted,  the  powerful  strength  of  the  earth 
seeped  up  into  the  nerves  of  his  mind;  made  the  brain 
more  highly  vitahzed;  buoyed  him  up  on  an  immense 
ethereal  flood.  The  man  felt  himself  to  be  concentric 
with  the  polar  axis,  the  influences  of  Pleiades,  the  bands 
of  Orion.  Occult  secrecies  were  opened  unto  him;  the 
balancings  of  the  clouds  and  the  mysteries  of  the  Zodiac. 
The  thunder  of  that  power  came  upon  him  hke  a  wide 
breaking  in  of  waters.  And  genius  is  the  name  we  give 
to  it.  Said  Aristotle:  "No  great  genius  was  ever  with- 
out some  admixture  of  madness;  nor  can  anything  grand 
or  superior  be  spoken  except  by  the  agitated  soul." 

The  fact  is  incontestable:  life  in  community  states 
sends  down  deeper  roots  and  pushes  into  loftier  branch- 
ings, than  life  in  large  commercial  states.  That  is  why 
it  develops  a  civihan  rather  than  a  military  fabric:  "The 
Lord  will  give  strength  unto  his  people;  the  Lord  will 
bless  his  people  with  peace."  Nationalism  is  a  force 
making  inevitably  for  war,  because  it  is  a  force  expanding 
in  the  sideways  direction.  The  surface  of  the  earth  is 
limited.  But  commercial  greed  is  unlimited.  So  these 
lateral-thrustings  known  as  nationalisms  spread  and 
spread  until  they  coUide.  Which  colUsions,  now  that  the 
globe  is  full  peopled,  must  become  more  frequent  and  more 
sanguinary.  NationaUty  sprawls;  municipaUty  delves. 
It  is  the  difference  between  a  commercial  civilization  and 
an  artistic  civihzation.  Of  that  City  of  God  in  the  Apoc- 
alypse we  read:  "The  length  and  the  breadth  and  the 
height  of  it  are  equal."    Commerce  is  the  worship  of 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     227 

superfluity;  a  measuring  of  success  by  bigness;  Quan- 
tum is  its  godhead.  Art  digs  into  the  deeps  and  chmbs 
unto  the  heights;  works  intensively,  not  extensively; 
measures  all  things  by  the  standard  of  quality.  To 
sprawl  is  not  meritorious  —  the  jelly  fish  can  do  that. 
For  business  in  the  vertical  direction,  vertebrates 
appeared. 

Some  will  ask  why  Nature-worship  is  necessarily  tied 
to  a  communal  form  of  life;  why  may  it  not  be  cultivated 
by  each  individual  for  himself?  Thoreau  at  Walden 
Lake,  for  example;  Nature  devotee,  and  yet  Uving  in  a 
hermit's  cabin.  The  answer  is.  Nature  always  presents 
herself  to  us  in  mass  formation,  and  can  be  counter- 
poised only  by  human  beings  in  mass  formation.  Fierce 
and  fractious  in  the  wild  abundance  of  her  strength,  she 
must  first  be  mastered.  Individual  man  cannot  master 
her.  Even  savages  are  compelled  to  practise  a  primitive 
form  of  association,  in  order  to  exist;  animals  too  know 
the  herding  instinct. 

Take  any  geographical  nook.  Make  a  catalogue  of 
the  Nature-forces  there  massed:  the  river,  the  springs 
that  feed  it,  the  pastures  alongside,  prowlers  and  creep- 
ing things  and  insects,  weeds  and  tangling  vines  pushing 
with  ceaseless  urge,  winds  and  hail  and  electric  storms  — 
a  plexus  of  vitalities  and  powers  and  movements  beating 
in  upon  that  spot;  and  mountain-like  in  their  ensemble. 
A  Robinson  Crusoe  was  shipwrecked  solitary  amid  such 
a  mass.  And  the  reader  will  recall  how  helpless  he  lay. 
It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone.  Nature  tramples 
him  as  a  bullock  tramples  a  pismire.  "Tribeless,  lawless, 
heartless  ones,"  Homer  wrote  of  such.  And  Aristotle 
says  of  this  lonely  type:  "He  may  be  compared  to  an 
unprotected  piece  in  the  game  of  checkers." 

Crusoe,  as  the  story  narrates,  preserved  a  something 


228  THE  FREE  CITY 

of  human  ascendency,  because  the  ship  that  had  brought 
him,  furnished  methods  and  implements  and  suppUes 
which  had  been  perfected  by  the  communion  of  mankind 
through  long-civiUzed  centuries.  Thoreau  in  like  man- 
ner took  to  Walden  Lake  a  civiUzation  ready-made: 
the  pen  he  wrote  with,  the  paper  he  wrote  upon,  the  fire- 
kindling  match,  the  kettle,  the  axe  he  borrowed,  the 
pattern  for  the  building  of  his  house.  With  even  this 
start  the  contest  proved  unequal.  The  hardships  wore 
down  his  endurance.    Disease  took  him  untimely  away. 

As  anything  smaller  than  the  community  is  too  feeble 
to  maintain  itself,  so  in  the  other  direction  a  poUtical 
grouping  larger  than  the  community  is  a  misfit  and  a 
misery.  Nature  presents  herself  in  blocks  or  segments 
known  as  locaUties.  Each  locality  is  a  unit.  One  is  a 
sea  coast,  another  is  a  river  valley,  another  is  a  plateau. 
Our  planet  is  covered  with  many  locahties.  These  differ 
as  to  the  slant  of  the  sun,  slope  of  the  prevailing  winds, 
quahty  and  temperature  of  the  air,  sequence  of  seasons, 
geological  antecedents,  relationship  v/ith  neighboring 
locaUties,  the  constellations  overarching  and  the  earth 
crust  undergirding.  And  these  natural  diversities  ought 
to  be  permitted  to  express  themselves  in  the  peoples 
there  inhabiting;  making  them  also  diverse  one  from  the 
other.  Peoples  thus  differently  situated  can  be  crushed 
into  pohtical  uniformity  only  by  divorcing  them  from 
their  natural  settings. 

Nationalists,  forasmuch  as  they  live  thus  in  an  arti- 
ficial fabric  of  state,  are  not  children  of  Nature.  They 
seek  to  escape  from  Nature,  by  getting  rich.  To  be  rich 
is  to  be  enabled  to  Uve  an  existence  divorced  from  Nature. 
Money  permits  its  possessor  to  eat  without  putting  his 
hands  to  the  soil,  travel  without  putting  his  feet  to  the 
ground;    to  wear  clothing,  and  never  see  the  sheep's 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     229 

wooly  back,  the  cotton  tufting  itself  in  the  boll,  and  the 
flax  upthnisting  in  a  sea  of  yellow  or  golden  brown.  A 
desire  to  be  rich,  serves  notice  upon  Nature  that  we  no 
longer  desire  her  company.  Under  a  nationaUst  form  of 
society,  labor  is  always  in  disrepute;  the  entire  trend  is 
to  escape  from  toil  and  live  by  the  toil  of  others  —  toil, 
which  is  our  method  of  intimacy  with  the  Great  Mother. 
Under  nationalism,  parents  pray  day  and  night  that 
heaven  will  avert  from  their  children  a  career  of  manual 
labor.  Of  all  occupations,  that  of  the  farmer  comes  into 
closest  contact  with  Nature  in  all  her  forms.  And  the 
temper  of  society  in  nationalist  America  is  so  averse  to 
agricultural  work  that  the  farms  are  being  depopulated. 
We  see  a  mad  drive  toward  the  urban  centers;  as  in  that 
other  commercial  empire,  Rome-of-the-decadence.  A 
farmer  walking  up  Broadway  with  wide  brimmed  straw, 
top  boots,  suspenders,  pitchfork  or  hay  rake  over  his 
shoulder,  would  obstruct  traffic,  would  probably  call  out 
the  poUce  reserves.  And  yet  not  one  of  the  boys  and 
men  in  that  hilarious  crowd  could  exist  seven  days  with- 
out the  foodstuffs  provided  by  that  farmer  and  his  com- 
rades of  the  soil.  Nationalism  may  be  defined  as  a 
scheme  of  society  whereby  a  class  of  non-producers 
may  hve  without  looking  Nature  in  the  face. 

The  overciviHzed  modern  would  have  been  shocked 
could  he  have  looked  in  on  the  burgher  folk  of  Gothic 
communes;  their  leather  garments  handed  down  from 
father  to  son;  going  their  journeys  on  foot  and  sleeping 
where  night  overtook  them.  Often  the  turnip  cellar  was 
their  sole  means  of  subsistence  for  weeks  at  a  time.  The 
great  hall  was  strewn  with  rushes;  or  in  Italy,  with  laurel 
leaves,  and  with  twigs  of  the  juniper,  in  Norway.  From 
imder  the  bed  in  the  corner  could  often  be  heard  the 
quacking  of  a  duck  or  the  honk  of  a  goose.    In  the  thir- 


230  THE  FREE  CITY 

teenth  century  water  was  brought  into  London  by  con- 
duit; a  poor  thing  consisting  of  lead  pipe.  But  they 
greeted  it  with  6clat:  abundance  of  water,  "for  the  poor 
to  drink  and  the  rich  to  dress  their  meat."  Nuremburg 
had  to  prohibit  pigs  and  stock  from  running  loose  in  the 
streets;  and  we  get  glimpses  of  her  poet,  Hans  Sachs, 
sitting  on  the  bench  in  front  of  the  tavern,  quaffing  huge 
steins.  In  Ulm,  the  baker's  guild  had  to  decree  that  its 
members  should  confine  cows  to  their  stalls  at  night. 
We  get  glimpses  of  wooden  shoes,  oiled  linen  in  heu  of 
glass,  garments  of  homespun  butternut.  Yet  life  with 
them  was  deUcious;  and  the  work  of  their  hands  wrought 
lovely  shapes  beyond  our  poor  power  even  to  imitate. 
One  of  the  last  services  of  Rodin  was  to  plead  with  his 
countrymen  not  to  repair  a  Gothic  cathedral;  because, 
said  he,  there  was  a  magic  in  man's  handiwork  in  that 
time  which  moderns  cannot  achieve;  the  touch  df  a 
nowaday  bungler  is  instantly  apparent,  spoils  the  unity 
of  the  structure. 

Nature  craves  intimacy  with  man.  He  is  her  appa- 
ratus whereby  she  climbs  up  out  of  unconsciousness, 
through  subconsciousness,  into  self  consciousness.  "The 
Sun  is  my  father  and  the  Earth  is  my  Mother;  on  her 
bosom  I  will  rest,"  said  Tecumseh.  A  blind  Mother  is 
she.  So  she  has  given  birth  to  man  in  order  that  his 
eyes  may  guide  her  sightlessness.  Her  joy  is  to  be  in 
the  company  of  her  children,  these  humans  she  has 
brought  into  being  at  so  great  a  cost  of  birth  pangs: 

DEUCTAE    MEAE   ESSE   CUM    FILIIS    HOMINUM.      From    prO- 

toplasm  to  Plato,  self-expression  on  the  part  of  Nature 
is  the  lu-ge  that  drives  the  imiversal  scheme.  It  is  at  her 
instigation,  man  puts  on  the  garland  and  the  singing  robe. 
Art  is  territoriaUty  expressing  itself.  A  municipal  com- 
monwealth is  a  community  that  has  the  courage  to  be 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     231 

itself;  delivering  its  own  message  to  the  world  and  not 
the  message  of  another.  That  pride  of  locaUty  is  the 
courage  that  makes  for  originality  of  product.  People 
in  communes  hve  inimitably;  and  so  build  earth  into  a 
never-cloying  paradise. 

MunicipaHty  is  a  distributer  of  metropoHtan  grandeur 
and  dignities.  The  Bible  is  one  long  speech  proclaiming 
that  the  city  which  is  not  a  free  city  is  a  disgraced  city. 
Whenever  a  municipal  commonwealth  emerges,  straight- 
way the  angels  start  constructing  a  stairway  to  that  spot. 
In  glorifjdng  herself,  the  Free  City  is  glorifying  that 
geographical  portion  and  segment  of  Nature.  No  fact 
is  more  obvious,  than  that  the  healthful  spirit  of  locahsm 
has  written  the  resplendencies  and  the  picturesqueness 
into  the  record  of  man.  Modernisms'  disgusting  uni- 
formity is  obUterating  the  Swiss  chalet,  the  Irish  brogue, 
the  Highland  kilt.  Everything  to  travel  with,  but  no 
spot  worth  travelling  to.  Steam  cars,  motor  cars,  aero 
cars  —  and  nowhere  to  go!  We  have  swift  means  of 
communication;  but  very  little  to  communicate.  Tele- 
phone, telegraph,  aero-post,  wireless — and  nothing  to  say 

The  United  States  Constitution  concentrates  the 
sovereignty  of  the  American  continent  in  one  spot;  to 
which  all  other  spots  are  provincial  and  tributary.  That 
favored  spot  is  Manhattan  Island.  Ninety  two  per  cent 
of  the  money  in  America,  and  therefore  ninety  two  per 
cent  of  the  government  of  America,  is  in  New  York  City; 
a  disproportion,  furthermore,  that  is  hourly  growing;  so 
terrific  is  the  centralization  of  power  that  is  taking  place. 
New  York  is  the  capital  of  America;  Washington  is  a  deco- 
rative adjunct  where  the  clerks  and  stenographers  are  kept. 

From  which  fact  there  is  taking  place  a  cheapening  of 
all  other  places.  It  is  as  if  New  York  Bay,  with  its  horse- 
shoe prongs  of  the  East  and  North  Rivers,  formed  a 


232  THE  FREE  CITY 

colossal  magnet  attracting  everybody  in  America;  start- 
ing money  to  journey  in  this  direction,  prompting  sons 
and  daughters  on  every  farm  to  get  ready  to  move  in  this 
direction.  Boards  of  investigation  are  scratching  per- 
plexed skulls  to  solve  the  country-life  problem,  discover 
some  method  of  turning  back  to  the  rural  districts  the 
magnetism  that  is  setting  so  mightily  towards  the  urban 
centers.  Their  recommendations  have  left  the  principle 
of  nationalism  untouched.  Therefore  they  have  ad- 
vanced no  appreciable  inch  towards  a  remedy.  Indeed, 
students  are  beginning  to  feel  that  the  blood-sucking  drain 
of  vitahty  from  the  farmsides  must  continue;  leaving 
the  rural  regions  finally  to  be  populated  by  rustics,  a 
peasant  class  of  the  left-behinds  —  countryfolk  who  were 
too  de-vitaUzed  to  feel  the  tug  citywards,  or  too  shiftless 
to  pull  up  stakes  and  move.  "Very  few  farms  anywhere 
in  Ohio  have  any  men  under  middle  age,  and  much  of 
the  work  is  done  by  old  men."  The  growth  of  farm- 
tenantry  is  the  dominating  social  fact  in  half  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  Away  from  the  farm  into  the  village,  away 
from  the  village  into  the  smaller  cities,  away  from  the 
smaller  cities  into  the  bigger  cities,  away  from  the  bigger 
cities  into  New  York — that  is  America's  national  anthem. 
Nationalism  is  a  device  for  depopulating  the  farm.  It 
worked  that  way  under  the  Roman  Empire;  has  worked 
that  way  in  modem  nationalist  Europe;  is  working  that 
way  in  America.  Peasants  are  agriculturalists  in  whom 
the  fire  of  sovereignty  has  died  out.  New  York  is  to 
Kansas  City  what  Babylon  was  to  Jerusalem.  The 
worshippers  of  the  Golden  Calf  were  content  that  Pales- 
tine should.be  administered  from  Babylon  as  its  capital 
and  center.  They  who  stood  for  the  ark-of-the-covenant 
—  that  civic  palladium  —  insisted  on  a  Jerusalem- 
centered    state.    Many    an    agricultural    folk    to-day, 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     233 

subserviently  accepting  a  pallid  and  diminutive  destiny, 
is  worshipping  a  golden  image  which  Palestinian  citizens 
in  their  day  burnt  with  fire  and  ground  into  pieces  and 
strewed  on  the  water,  so  flame-hot  was  the  fire  of  local 
patriotism  that  burned  within  them. 

Furthermore,  this  concentration  of  the  riches  and  power 
of  a  continent  in  New  York  City,  is  not  a  gain  even  to  her. 
It  is  swelling  this  town  into  a  mammonism  whose  fevered 
existence  is  far  from  spiritual-mindedness.  A  dropsical 
bloat:  Luxury  Enlightening  The  World.  Manhattan 
cannot  take  time  to  five;  she  is  forever  uptorn  to  trans- 
port and  house  the  hordes  that  pour  in  upon  her.  The 
bloat  is  proceeding  at  so  rapid  a  pace,  she  is  continuously 
ripping  up  seams  in  her  garment  and  letting  out  tucks. 
New  York  never  is,  she  is  always  going  to  be.  Every 
here  and  there  you  can  find  a  stretch  of  street  where  a 
house  is  not  being  torn  down  or  built.  Those  blocks 
would  be  desirable  for  residence,  were  it  not  that  the  pave- 
ment there  is  torn  up  to  enlarge  the  subway.  Behold 
the  quiet  beauty  of  old  City  Hall,  contrasting  with  her 
"Municipal  Building,"  just  finished  —  a  lithe  and  grace- 
ful David,  glowered  down  upon  by  a  hulk  of  a  Goliath. 

Where  the  sovereignty  is,  people  will  congregate. 
ConsoHdate  the  sovereignty  of  a  continent  in  one  spot, 
all  the  Country  Life  Commissions  in  the  world  cannot 
prevent  the  population  from  tearing  up  its  roots  and 
migrating  thitherward.  The  principle  of  municipaUty, 
on  the  other  hand,  scatters  world-capitals  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  continent.  Thereby  it  effects 
a  healthy  dispersal  of  the  population;  saves  one  favored 
center  from  going  apoplectic  with  congestion.  Sovereignty 
is  like  manure;  if  heaped  in  one  place  it  enriches  that  spot 
unduly,  so  that  it  grows  rank  with  weeds  and  worms;  with 
an  impoverishment  of  all  the  residue  of  the  field. 


234  THE  FREE  CITY 

In  America  one  community  monopolizes  the  sov- 
ereignty, to  the  humiliation  of  a  hundred  other  com- 
munities. These  outlying  provinces  thereupon  lose  their 
local  tang,  begin  to  imitate  the  capital  city.  It  makes 
for  universal  monotony.  Free  Cities,  on  the  other  hand, 
parcel  out  the  sovereignty  with  a  hberal  hand.  It  pushes 
up  an  archipelago  of  islands  to  sprinkle  the  ocean  of 
sameness;  diversifying  the  flat  waste  of  waters  with 
islands  that  federate  but  never  coalesce.  America  is  not 
a  country  but  a  continent.  Unification  of  the  people 
over  so  large  an  area  could  take  place  only  by  each  com- 
munity consenting  to  give  up  that  which  individuaUzes 
it;  the  least  common  denominator  of  them  all,  is  sheer 
animal  existence;  the  one  thing  we  have  in  common,  all 
of  the  higher  characteristics  having  been  discarded  from 
the  calculation.  That  is  why  we  Americans  are  medi- 
ocre. Mankind  is  called  to  hve  variously.  The  white 
beam  of  sunshine  is  inartistic,  until  it  has  become  broken 
apart  into  its  component  colors;  then  each  tint  is  bril- 
liant by  contrast  with  its  neighbors  —  multicolor  versus 
the  monotone.  MunicipaUty  is  the  prism  that  takes  the 
himian  species  and  separates  it  into  a  varicolored  spec- 
trum, a  prismatic  band  encircling  the  globe  and  by  whose 
pigmentation,  life  would  be  wondrously  briUiant. 

Free  Cities  make  for  a  wide  and  rich  variorum.  That 
gives  cross  fertilization;  earth  a  flower  bed  of  ten  thousand 
distinct  plants,  seminating  into  the  poUtical  atmosphere 
an  invigorating  exchange  of  pollen.  Naught  could  stale 
so  infinite  a  variety.  And  Earth,  though  of  the  smallest 
of  planets,  would  never  have  another  epidemic  of  world- 
weariness.  Nature  is  a  nursing-mother  with  many 
breasts.  Each  several  landscape  is  one  of  her  teats.  The 
community  state  is  based  on  the  principle  that  they  who 
are  suckled  by  milk  from  the  same  nipple,  are  fused  into 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     235 

a  litter,  a  mystic  communion;  and  that  to  disregard  this 
natural  mold  and  formula  of  statehood,  is  an  irreverence 
toward  the  maternal  milk.  The  more  truly  a  people 
form  a  communal  group  at  suck  on  her  nourishing  breast, 
the  more  pacific  they  are  toward  other  clan-groups  at 
suck  on  neighboring  teats.  For  usurpation  of  another's 
territory  they  have  no  thought.  The  milk  from  the  teat 
they  are  fastened  to,  seems  to  them  sweeter  than  any 
other.  Listen  to  Bentivoglio:  "The  Alps  are  created 
for  the  Swiss,  and  the  Swiss  for  the  Alps." 

Henry  George  was  right:  communal  ownership  of  the 
soil  is  requisite  for  true  civilization.  The  landless  man  is 
a  helpless  man,  a  castaway;  riff-raff;  as  trees  plucked  up 
by  the  roots,  raging  waves  of  the  sea  whose  waters  cast 
up  mire  and  dirt.  The  Free  City  socializes  the  ownership 
of  a  landscape,  making  all  of  the  citizens  co-proprietors. 
George  sensed  the  affinity  between  his  teaching  and  the 
principle  of  municipaUty.  The  final  act  of  his  life  was  to 
consecrate  the  municipal  idea  as  mayoralty  candidate  in 
New  York.  Territorial  freedom  is  of  Henry  Georgeism 
the  quintessence.  He  preached  the  sanctity  of  the  soil. 
The  territorial  crust  we  five  upon  comes  from  Godhead. 
It  is  an  inheritance  entailed  upon  the  community,  and 
not  to  be  alienated.  Any  instrument  conveying  eminent 
domain  of  that  tract  of  earth  into  the  sovereignty  of  a 
power  outside,  is  null  and  void. 

Many  hearts  are  sighing  for  the  Age  of  Faith,  that 
olden  time  when  man  believed,  and  life  was  full  of  pres- 
ences and  powers.  Let  imagination  begiu  once  more  to 
function,  to-day's  blankness  and  secularism  will  yield, 
will  give  way  again  to  an  Age  of  Faith.  Psychologists 
with  their  false  ego-philosophy  —  their  introverted  gaze 
—  have  been  unable  to  account  for  imagination  or  explain 
its  thaumaturgic  doings.     Imagination  is  the  union  of 


236  THE  FREE  CITY 

Nature  and  human  nature;  a  bursting  of  the  below-the- 
threshold  up  into  the  dome  of  consciousness;  fact  and 
fancy  shaking  hands.  That  union  is  wrought  only  by 
the  principle  of  municipality.  Free  Cities  have  woven 
the  beautiful  things  into  the  time-tapestry,  because  they 
brought  to  pass  imaginative  epochs.  A  community  state 
is  the  amphibious  thing  comprehending  both  psychology 
and  geography,  human  nature  and  physical  nature; 
middle  form  that  joins  thought  and  matter;  form  and 
substance  kissing  each  other.  That  is  imagination.  By 
its  working  the  wall  of  partition  is  broken  down  and  the 
light  of  consciousness  penetrates  the  cellar  of  the  mind, 
that  subbasement  whose  other  name  is  Nature.  It  is 
the  rainbow  intermingling  with  the  muck  heap,  and  the 
pot  of  gold  is  their  offspring.  Imagination  is  a  richer 
thing  than  either  actuality  or  fantasy,  because  it  is  their 
synthesis,  harmonizer  that  mediates  between  those  con- 
tending opposites. 

Read  Greek  hterature,  or  the  Bible,  or  the  chronicles 
of  the  Gothic  era,  you  will  perceive  imagination  at  work. 
The  mind  of  that  day  was  a  world  of  half-Hghts.  Then 
people  dwelt  in  Nature,  and  Nature  dwelt  in  them. 
Consciousness  and  Unconsciousness  fraternized  in  a 
twilight  zone  called  Subconsciousness;  a  magic  infiltra- 
tion of  hghts  and  shadows  that  painted  the  universe  in  a 
mystic  chiaroscuro.  That  clear-obscure  was  not  the 
garish  hght  of  a  desert,  neither  was  it  pitch-black  night; 
but  a  vault  of  starhght  clothed  with  dusk  and  dimness, 
realm  of  half-tones  wherein  weird  strange  forms  started 
out  of  their  enchanted  sleep.  People  in  those  Ages  of 
Belief  Hved  in  a  waking  dream.  They  saw  the  world 
through  a  veil  of  love  and  faith  and  shrouding  mystery; 
wherein  the  objects  of  sense  were  neither  absent  nor  im- 
portunately present.    Municipality's  union  of  men  and 


THE  MYSTICISM  OF  MUNICIPALITY     237 

the  landscape  they  inhabit,  rends  the  curtain  that  sep- 
arates the  Conscious  and  the  Unconscious.  Thereby  the 
spirit  becomes  naturahzed  in  a  phantasmagoric  world; 
a  hundred-floored  phalanstery  ranging  from  seraph  beings 
above,  to  gnomes  in  the  grottos  and  profundities  of  the 
nether  kingdom.  In  that  posture  of  the  mind,  Delphic 
oracles.  Sibylline  leaves.  Mounts  of  Transfiguration, 
runes  of  the  Vikings,  Dantesque  infernos  and  paradisos, 
not  only  become  credible;  but  make  the  flatness  of  an 
age  of  secularism  seem  incredible. 

Freud  paints  the  neurasthenic  wretchedness  that  af- 
flicts us  when  the  Unconscious  is  imprisoned.  Life  in  a 
Free  City  is  never  neurasthenic.  When  men  congregate 
in  this  natural  polity  of  state,  the  spiritual  and  the  animal 
kingdoms  are  melodiously  interfused;  each  moderating 
the  other  so  that  intemperances  are  discouraged.  Munic- 
ipality tolerates  no  wall  of  separation  between  mentaUty 
and  emotion.  It  blends  the  intellectual  and  the  vital; 
shows  us  poets  who  were  men  of  action,  and  men  of  action 
who  were  poets.  Up  to  the  Ninth  Heaven,  and  through 
all  the  diablerie  of  hell,  Dante  was  a  pamphleteer  fighting 
the  fight  of  Florentine  politics.  This  interplay  of  un- 
conscious Nature  and  conscious  human  nature  is  the 
image-forming  faculty;  externality  and  internaUty  ce- 
menting an  indivisible  union.  When  the  under  world  of 
the  imconscious,  and  the  upper  world  of  the  conscious 
are  so  myopic  that  they  cannot  see  each  other,  each  is 
the  loser.  The  intellect  then  goes  off  into  madcap  romp- 
ings,  irresponsible  phantasy;  and  the  repressed  emotions 
riot  stormfully  in  their  dungeon,  with  neurasthenic  con- 
sequences. 

When  the  pohtical  fabric  permits  men  to  get  on  friendly 
terms  with  Nature,  the  smart  circles  that  we  call  intellect, 
and  the   roughscuff  of   the  physical  realm  become  ac- 


238  THE  FREE  CITY 

quainted.  It  is  as  though  a  trap  door  had  been  opened  m 
the  floor  of  the  mind,  affording  to  the  mob  of  prisoners 
in  the  dungeon  underneath,  a  passage  and  ventilation 
upwards.  Cahban,  by  this  hght,  awakes  to  conscious- 
ness; goes  thenceforth  with  Ariel,  arm  in  arm.  Then 
imagery  commences,  for  the  fiat  lux  has  been  uttered  in 
the  catacombs  of  the  Unconscious.  Nature  becomes 
vivified;  like  dew  at  sunrise,  steaming  up  into  cloudfields 
that  go  pictorial  with  all  shapes  and  pigmented  with  all 
colorings.  The  physical  world  by  itself,  unleavened  and 
unillumined,  makes  for  animaUsm.  The  thought  world 
by  itself,  segregated  in  secluded  aloofness,  makes  for 
pietism.  Mysticism  is  the  condition  between,  moderat- 
ing them  both  into  a  third  entity  that  is  different  from 
either,  as  air  is  different  from  the  oxygen  and  nitrogen 
that  compose  it;  a  glacier,  we  might  say,  flowing  over 
into  Gehenna  and  cooling  its  fever  thirst. 

Three  chapters  back  we  saw  that  the  community  is  the 
mid-point  in  the  realm  of  the  humanities,  with  the  ego  at 
the  extreme  Left,  and  the  world  at  the  extreme  Right. 
Here  we  see  that  the  community  is  the  mid-point  also  be- 
tween Nature  and  human  nature;  a  ladder  extending 
from  creatures  of  the  dynosauric  slime,  up  to  highest 
inhabiters  of  the  empyrean.  Thus,  the  community  is 
the  crossing  point  of  two  teeter-boards;  with  perspectives 
leftward  and  right  ward  and  downward  and  upward. 
Life  at  that  center  takes  on  an  absolute  existence;  a 
fourth-dimensional  tract  of  being.  It  explains  why 
people  in  municipal  epochs  are  supernormally  endowed. 
CentraUty  of  centrahties,  it  is  the  meeting  place  of  the 
lines  that  are  horizontal  and  the  hnes  that  are  vertical; 
the  point  where  the  web  and  the  woof  concur.  The 
tapestry  that  is  woven  of  them  is  civiUzation. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  SOCIAL  STATE 

BEAUTY  is  that  which  takes  us  back  home.  And 
where  is  our  home?  Nature.  It  is  she  that  has 
made  us  and  not  we  ourselves.  Does  not  the  life 
of  each  one  of  us  recapitulate  the  evolutionary  ascent? 
The  imiverse  begins  again  with  every  child.  Through 
the  nine  gestation  months,  the  life-plasm  proceeds  through 
stages  of  crystal,  vegetable,  animal.  Nor  does  birth 
cause  a  break  in  the  ascending  series.  The  child  climbs 
the  culture-ladder  through  the  anthropoid  forms,  savage, 
barbarian,  and  the  periods  of  civil  history.  Time,  un- 
coiling thus  her  infinite  spiral  in  the  career  of  each  of  us, 
leaves  in  the  marrow  of  our  nerves  the  imprint  of  all  the 
stages  passed  through.  Beauty  is  anything  that  reminds 
us  of  those  prehistoric  Yesterdays  in  our  existence:  the 
grace  of  the  lily,  Utheness  of  the  tiger,  pomp  of  color  that 
charms  the  bee  to  the  buttercup's  blossom,  melody  that 
is  reminiscent  within  us  of  ancient  arboreal  life  when  we 
listened  to  our  bird-mate  at  nesting  time  and  were  glad; 
or  perhaps  the  music  of  the  waters,  that  carry  us  back  to 
aquatic  ancestors.  Line  and  color  and  sound  are  beauti- 
ful to  us,  when  they  are  voices  that  thrill  across  from  the 
home-kingdom  to  remind  us  of  the  life  we  used  to  live, 
in  the  old  ancestral  haunts. 

Art  is  our  communion  with  those  old  voices  shouting 

in  our  blood;  hence,  the  mesmeric  pull  of  it  on  our  ganglia, 

239 


240  THE  FREE  CITY 

those  convolutions  of  our  cosmic  past.  There  is  a  hom- 
ing pigeon  in  every  one  of  us.  The  esthetic  sense  is  the 
name  of  that  pigeon.  Our  craving  for  beauty  is  our 
nostalgia  for  the  old  homestead.  Not  in  utter  emptiness 
come  we  into  life,  but  trailing  clouds  of  association  from 
our  infinite  past.  That  homeland  Hes  about  us  in  our 
infancy.  That  is  why  children  beHeve  in  fairies.  The 
prosaic  world  of  sordidness  and  gain  have  not  yet  closed 
about  the  growing  boy.  Elves  and  brownies  and  dwarfs, 
lorelei  and  kelpie  —  he  sees  them  in  his  joy.  If  he  re- 
mains close  to  Nature  he  wiU  continue  to  see  them  in 
his  adulthood.  Then  he  will  write  as  Homer  wrote,  as 
David,  as  Virgil  and  as  Dante.  Meadow,  grove  and 
stream,  and  every  common  object,  will  seem  the  glory 
and  the  freshness  of  a  dream. 

Wordsworth  thought  that  Nature,  the  homely  Nurse, 
does  all  she  can  to  make  her  foster  child,  man,  forget  the 
glories  he  has  known.  Natm-e  does  quite  the  opposite. 
By  a  thousand  sweet  endearments  she  seeks  to  keep  alive 
in  us  a  remembrance  of  the  homestead.  Artists  are  the 
messengers  she  sends  to  us  for  this  purpose;  their  produce, 
a  reminder  that  we  once  were  blood-brothers  of  bird  and 
flower  and  the  strong  growth  of  beeches  on  the  hilltop. 
Art's  vocation  is  endless  imitation  of  the  forms  and  tints 
and  circumstances  of  our  historic  and  prehistoric  past. 
Our  deUght  in  a  work  of  art  is  the  dehght  of  a  homesick 
boy  who  comes  back  to  father's  house  and  feels  the  arms 
of  mother  tightening  around  him. 

Municipahty  is  the  social  state,  wherein  man  and  Nature 
cohabit  on  terms  of  friendliest  conununion.  And  beauty 
—  naturalness  —  is  the  result.  In  such  a  political  es- 
tabUshment,  heels  are  not  high,  hats  are  not  fantastic, 
speed  laws  are  unknown.  In  city  commonwealths  people 
drink  from  the  fountain  more  often  than  from  the  faucet. 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  241 

Frequently  they  eat  with  unwashed  hands,  and  sleep  in 
garments  yet  moist  with  the  toils  of  the  day.  Three- 
quarters  of  the  "cleanliness"  that  is  found  in  our  modern 
form  of  society  is  not  cleanness  but  a  badge  of  class  dis- 
tinction. The  rich  use  the  bodies  of  the  poor  as  stepping 
stones  whereby  their  daintily  sandalled  feet  touch  not 
the  mire  of  hfe;  and  then  draw  aside  from  companion- 
ship with  those  poor,  on  the  plea  that  such  folk  are  be- 
mired. 

In  the  Gothic  municipalities  the  guildsmen,  when  mak- 
ing hohday,  exchanged  not  their  work-day  clothes  for 
leisure-class  garments.  In  their  festal  procession  they 
displayed  the  emblems  and  signs  of  their  toil,  with  the 
pride  yet  seen  when  Masonic  lodges  don  their  apron. 
They  formed  liaison  with  Nature,  a  Haison  extending  to 
the  mud  of  the  field  and  the  grime  of  the  smithy.  Mud! 
Why  should  human  beings  have  a  horror  of  mud?  Mud 
is  our  nourishment,  pulp  of  our  existence,  pap  from  the 
succulent  teats  of  the  faithful  all-nursing  Mother.  From 
mud  comes  our  food,  the  coat  on  our  back,  the  roses  that 
deck  our  table.  Is  it  seemly  to  reUsh  the  product  and 
scorn  the  producer?  "Back  to  Nature"  means  back  to 
mud.  And  they  who  hate  mother  mud  hate  Mother 
Nature.  Modernism,  with  its  vacuum  cleaner,  is  not 
more  cleanly  than  those  old  municipal  eras,  ankle  deep 
in  the  brown  and  wholesome  earth.  We  Uve  not  any 
longer  or  more  healthily  than  they;  and  we  can  not  pro- 
duce as  they  produced. 

Nationalism  is  a  mania  of  uniformity.  It  seeks  to 
make  three  thousand  miles  of  America  dance  to  the  same 
tune;  insists  that  Los  Angeles  with  her  palms  and  Bangor 
with  her  pines  shall  be  huddled  into  one.  It  can  see  no 
difference  between  Jacksonville,  amid  her  magnoUas,  and 
Seattle   with   her   snow-clad   Mount  Tacomah.     Is   the 


242  THE  FREE  CITY 

Spanish  moss  at  New  Orleans  one  with  the  ebn  trees  of 

Saratoga?  FederaUsm  fraternizes  the  landscapes.  Na- 
tionalism fuses  the  landscapes.  Herbert  Spencer  has 
shown  that  progress  is  an  evolution  from  uniformity 
towards  multiformity;  the  homogeneity  transforming 
into  heterogeneity.  The  small  state,  forasmuch  as  it 
encourages  variety  in  the  peoples  scattered  throughout  a 
continent,  is  evolution's  handmaid.  Around  each  several 
locality  it  draws  a  firewall  of  sovereignty;  with  categori- 
cal imperative,  commands  all  the  residue  of  the  universe 
to  keep  its  meddUng  hands  from  that  spot.  Because 
within  that  firewall  a  holy  work  is  consununating  itself: 
a  territorial  segment  of  Nature  is  there  climbing  up  into 
human  nature,  finding  expression  in  homes  and  temples 
and  statues  and  laws  and  dress  and  manners,  in  paintings 
and  carvings  and  metal  work  and  song  and  bibles.  The 
Free  City  is  an  artistic  necessity. 

NationaUsm  is  proud  of  the  fact  that  it  is  abolishing 
space  and  time.  Why  in  heaven's  name  abolish  space 
and  time?  Space  and  time  are  all  we've  got.  Abohsh 
space  and  time,  you  have  aboUshed  the  universe.  Earth 
is  at  best  a  third-rate  planet  —  the  runt  of  the  flock,  the 
stunted  member  of  the  family.  Instead  of  destroying 
what  space  and  time  we  possess,  were  it  not  wiser  to  make 
the  most  of  the  scanty  measure  that  has  been  meted  out 
to  us?  On  so  small  a  planet,  do  the  best  we  can,  we  shall 
not  be  able  to  develop  a  greatly  variegated  fife;  we  have 
not  a  wide  gamut  of  soils  and  climates  and  sceneries,  such 
as  an  ordinary  sized  planet  possesses.  Instead  of  blurring 
our  landscapes  into  one  blot  of  indistinction  —  a  dreary 
monotone  of  sameness  from  sea  to  sea  —  municipality 
would  encourage  each  locality  to  bring  forth  after  its 
kind;  express  its  own  essence  and  idiosyncrasy.  An 
orchestra  in  which  all  the  instruments  are  the  same,  is 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  243 

nationalism's  ideal.  An  orchestration  wherein  each 
several  instrument  remains  severely  itself,  and  plays  the 
tune  according  to  its  unique  timbre,  is  municipality's 
ideal. 

The  question  of  the  future  is  not  going  to  be,  How  to 
shorten  the  time  of  travel;  but,  How  to  make  it  worth 
while  to  travel  at  aU.  You  can  go  a  thousand  miles  in 
America,  and  find  one  endless  similarity;  tank  towns 
needing  to  be  numbered  so  as  to  distinguish  them  from 
each  other.  You  are  hearing  the  modernistic  boast, 
"Twenty  hours  from  New  York  to  Chicago."  Under 
municipaUty  it  will  take  twenty  weeks  to  go  from  New 
York  to  Chicago.  Because  then,  Buffalo  and  Cleveland 
and  Toledo  will  be  something  more  than  whistling  sta- 
tions. Every  mile  of  the  journey  will  present  a  soul- 
awakening  piquant  surprise.  Is  there  not  a  nobler  form 
of  existence  than  to  rush  and  whiz?  Take  down  the 
cross  from  the  steeple-top;  GasoUne  is  god;  the 
speedometer  is  become  the  oracle  and  emblem  of  all 
blessedness.  The  death-dance  is  assuming  the  pro- 
portions of  a  St.  Vitus  plague.  To  the  deranging  of  all 
the  orbits  of  our  life. 

In  America  many  feel  compelled  to  voyage  abroad  for 
"artistic  miheu"  and  "atmosphere."  The  true  artist 
is  he  who  is  more  consunmiately  patriotic  than  others; 
stays  at  home;  takes  the  commonplace  and  coins  it  into 
legend  and  song  and  color.  There  came  a  time  when  the 
Greeks  no  longer  saw  Divinity  in  the  uncommon  produce 
of  each  common  day.  Their  phantasy  roamed  afar, 
looked  to  find  the  Fortunatus  Fields  and  Hesperides  with 
its  golden  fruit,  in  the  Atlantic  Main.  Then  her  art  de- 
clined. Kaaterskill-on-the-Hudson  is  quite  as  present- 
able a  creature  to  sit  for  her  portrait,  as  Jungfrau  or  the 
Ranges  of  Andalusia.    Or  perhaps  the  mountain  here  is 


244  THE  FREE  CITY 

not  as  yet  dressed  and  ready  to  be  put  on  canvas.  In 
which  case  the  true  artist  will  do  as  did  the  patriot  in 
Memphis-on-the-Nile.  He  will  take  the  rock  inass,  with 
affectionate  chisel  will  carve  it  into  a  Sphinx  head  that 
will  intrigue  all  after-ages.  And  then  he  will  paint  her 
portrait.  We  look  east  and  west  for  inspiration,  when 
there  is  a  Pantheon  in  the  clay  bank  under  our  feet,  a 
Rembrandt  in  the  group  at  the  grocery,  an  oratorio  in 
the  tramp  of  ten  thousand  shoes  on  the  pavement.  Mod- 
ernity is  overdoing  locomotion.  True  architecture  asks 
but  Uttle  of  life's  transportation  department.  Rome  was 
built  out  of  the  brickyards  back  of  the  Vatican.  The 
PenteUc  hills,  not  a  score  of  miles  removed  from  her, 
built  Athens.  The  landscape  rejects  an  edifice  built  of 
alien  materials.  To  such  a  building  the  skies  are  hostile, 
the  birds  forsake  it,  the  sun  looks  upon  it  disgruntled. 

Nationahsm  is  a  polity  of  state  for  making  millionaires. 
MunicipaUsm  is  a  poHty  of  state  for  making  master- 
workmen.  An  exact  thermometer  of  the  artistry  or  non- 
artistry  of  a  period,  is  to  be  foimd  in  the  status  of  the 
workingclass.  When  the  laborer  is  in  high  repute,  it  is 
an  age  of  art.  To-day,  not  the  workman's  blouse  but 
white  collars  and  lily  hands  are  the  style;  and  mediocrity 
marks  the  output.  In  Wagner's  "  Meistersinger  of 
Nuremburg,"  the  cobbler  wins  the  musical  prize;  be- 
cause his  themes  had  been  chosen  from  the  folk-songs 
of  the  people.  We  read  in  the  Arthiu"  stories  of  one  who 
rode  to  King  Arthur's  castle  and  knocked  for  admission. 
"I  will  not  open,"  said  the  porter;  "there  is  revelry  in 
Arthur's  hall,  and  none  may  enter  but  the  son  of  a  king 
of  a  privileged  country,  or  a  craftsman  bringing  his  craft." 
Is  handtoil  nowadays  the  passport  to  social  distinction? 

"In  every  Indian  village,"  reports  Birdwood  of  that 
wonder-continent  south  of  Thibet,  "handicrafts  are  still 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  245 

to  be  found  at  work;  the  hereditary  potter,  two  or  three 
looms,  the  brass  and  coppersmiths  hammering  away  at 
their  pots  and  pans;  the  jeweller,  taking  his  designs  from 
the  fruit  and  flowers  around  him.  Later  the  men  drive 
in  the  kine  from  the  plain,  the  looms  are  folded  up,  the 
coppersmiths  are  silent,  the  elders  gather  in  the  gate; 
feasting  and  music  are  heard  on  every  side;  and  late  into 
the  night  the  songs  are  sung  from  the  Ramayana  or 
Mahabharata."  PaUas  Athena  was  not  only  the  goddess 
of  thought;  but  also  —  because  to  the  Athenians,  thought 
was  not  thought  until  it  had  achieved  for  itself  outward 
expression  —  she  was  the  goddess  of  labor.  On  the 
AcropoHs  was  a  precinct  dedicated  to  "Athena  the 
Worker,"  Athene  ergane.  Says  the  Odyssey:  "Those 
that  are  the  craftsmen  of  the  people  are  welcome  over  all 
the  wide  earth."  Jesus,  a  carpenter,  seemed  not  to  the 
common  people  irreverent  when  he  announced  himself  to 
be  the  son  of  very  God.  "All  these  trust  to  their  hands," 
sings  Ecclesiasticus;  "and  everyone  is  wise  in  his  work." 

In  India  and  Japan  the  Commimity  Soul  was  supposed 
to  instigate  the  worker;  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Hive  moves 
the  bees  to  team  work  in  storing  the  comb  with  flower 
juices.  Lafcadio  Hearn  reports  of  Japan :  "  It  is  tolerably 
safe  to  assume  that  most  if  not  aU  of  the  guilds  were  at 
one  time  rehgiously  organized;  and  that  apprentices  were 
adopted  not  only  in  a  craft  but  in  a  cult  The  carpenter 
still  dons  a  priestly  costume  at  a  certain  stage  of  his  work. 
The  swordsmith  worked  in  priestly  garb,  practised  Shinto 
rites  of  purification,  and  ate  only  the  food  cooked  with 
holy  fire." 

In  communaUstic  India,  Visvakarma  was  beheved  to 
be  the  group  Soul  of  the  craftsmen  of  all  past  time.  A 
master  bricklayer,  long  pausing  to  decide  in  what  form  to 
build  a  certain  monument,  affirmed,   "at  that  instant 


246  THE  FREE  CITY 

Visvakarma  inspii-ed  him."  An  Eastern  craftsman  of  the 
old  school  speaks  with  scorn  of  those  who  "draw  after 
their  own  vain  imagining,"  Visvakarma,  "lord  of  the 
arts,  the  carpenter  of  the  gods,  on  whose  craft  men  sub- 
sist —  a  great  and  immortal  god  —  they  continually 
worship."  Is  not  the  following  good  orthodoxy:  "One 
who  knows  amiss  his  craft,  bringing  misfortunes  on  the 
owner  of  the  house,  that  builder  will  fall  into  hell  and 
suffer  —  these  sayings  are  in  Mayamataya.  What 
remedy  can  there  be  then,  O  builders?  Builders  who 
know  their  business  well  will  become  rajahs,  lacking 
naught.    Therefore  let  builders  study  Mayamataya." 

But  commerciaUsm  is  entering  India,  breaking  up  the 
communaUstic  form  of  industry  and  transforming  the 
toilers  into  "hands"  in  a  factory.  Says  Birdwood:  "Of 
late  these  handicraftsmen,  for  the  sake  of  whose  work 
the  whole  world  has  been  ceaselessly  pouring  its  bulUon 
for  three  thousand  years  into  India;  and  who,  for  all  the 
marvellous  tissue  and  embroidery  they  have  wrought, 
have  polluted  no  rivers,  deformed  no  pleasing  prospects, 
nor  poisoned  any  air;  whose  skill  and  individuaUty  the 
training  of  countless  generations  has  developed  to  the 
highest  perfection  —  these  hereditary  craftsmen  are  being 
everywhere  gathered  from  their  democratic  village  com- 
munities in  hundreds  and  thousands,  into  colossal  mills; 
at  manufacturing  piece  goods,  in  the  production  of  which 
they  are  no  more  intellectually  and  morally  concerned 
than  the  grinder  of  a  barrel  organ  in  the  tunes  turned  out 
from  it."  In  England  an  Appeal,  bearing  such  names  as 
Morris,  Burne-Jones,  Millais,  and  Edwin  Arnold,  peti- 
tioned in  behaK  of  India's  communal  form  of  productivity, 
and  against  the  conmaercializing  of  that  people:  "At  a 
time  when  these  productions  are  getting  to  be  daily  more 
valued  in  Europe,  these  sources  are  being  dried  up  in 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  247 

Asia;  and  goods  which  ought  to  be  common  in  the  market, 
are  now  becoming  rare  treasm-es  for  museums  and  the 
cabinets  of  rich  men." 

The  fight  between  the  national  state  and  the  munic- 
ipal state  is  the  fight  between  plutocracy  and  democracy. 
Characterizing  the  nationahst  as  material-minded,  I  re- 
fer to  the  type.  Being  under  a  national  regime,  we  at 
present  support  that  government;  it  is  the  only  form  of 
the  social  union  we  possess,  and  must  therefore  get  the 
allegiance  of  civil-minded  folk.  In  the  War  of  1861, 
Lincoln  was  right  and  Jefferson  Davis  was  wrong.  "Pre- 
serving the  Union"  was  not  the  fundamental  issue.  The 
Constitution,  made  by  an  assembling  of  the  people,  can 
by  an  assembling  of  the  people  be  unmade.  A  notary's 
parchment,  it  can  be  supplanted  by  a  new  and  different 
parchment.  Peaceable  procedures  are  indicated.  Davis, 
in  resorting  to  arms,  was  abolishing  civil  society,  and  in- 
troducing violent  society.  We  give  adhesion  to  the 
national  state,  until  we  can  get  another. 

Municipality,  in  pleading  for  industrial  democracy,  is 
pleading  truly  for  a  return  to  Nature.  Lily-fingered  folk 
hate  Nature,  and  in  turn  are  hated  by  her.  The  de- 
generators  at  Versailles,  when  their  life  had  become  in- 
sufferably artificial,  sought  to  escape  the  boredom  by  a 
playhouse  rusticity.  They  built  a  Little  Trianon  in  a 
comer  of  the  park,  donned  a  dairy  maid's  cap  —  ex- 
pensively millinered  —  and  milked  a  cow  that  valets  had 
groomed;  whilst  the  court  painter  took  sketches  of  the 
event.  The  Marie  Antoinettes  in  every  age  need  to  be 
told  that  Nature  will  not  receive  extortioners.  For  one 
person  to  live  without  working,  means  that  another  per- 
son has  worked  without  living. 

Democracy  must  have  a  lap  big  enough  to  take  in  tree 
toads,  turtles,  and  creeping  things  in  coral  caves  of  the 


248  THE  FREE  CITY 

sea.  These  are  the  cryptic  springs  within  us  that  feed 
the  pool  of  fancy,  pool  whose  o'erbrimmings  have  flowed 
an  irrigating  stream  into  the  thirsty  ways  of  the  world. 
In  the  artist,  all  fishes,  grasses,  and  all  quadrupeds  have 
obtained  an  inheritance.  An  age  of  art  is  the  test  and 
ensign  of  an  age  of  democracy;  it  signifies  that  man  is  not 
only  fraternizing  his  fellow  men,  but  is  on  neighborly 
terms  with  rock  and  sky  and  running  brooks,  cattle  of  the 
pasture,  four-foots  of  the  forest.  St.  Francis  wrote  a 
hynm  to  the  sun  and  his  "little  brothers,  the  birds." 
Isaiah  forcasted  a  time  when  man  would  be  on  friendly 
footing  with  beasts  of  the  wild  wood.  The  dog,  once  a 
wolf,  testifies  that  Nature  is  tameable.  The  common 
man,  forasmuch  as  he  is  a  laborer,  has  to  dwell  with 
horses,  cows,  dirt  of  the  fields.  He  takes  on  a  something 
of  odor  from  the  subhuman  world  he  works  in.  Nostrils 
that  are  offended  by  a  team  of  horses,  will  be  offended 
also  by  the  teamster  who  drives  that  team.  No  fact  of 
history  is  more  demonstrated:  A  cleavage  of  the  human 
family  from  the  subhuman,  is  accompanied  by  a  cleavage 
within  the  human  family  itself.  When  men  get  away 
from  Nature,  they  seek  also  to  get  away  from  each  other. 
Naturalism  asks  that  the  modem  thinness  of  skin  shall 
toughen  its  sensibilities.  Under  municipahty  the  function 
of  the  flesh,  all  the  just  dehghts  of  the  body,  walk  in  sim- 
hght  unabashed.  In  order  to  morahze  Nature,  we  must 
naturahze  our  moraHty.  Queasiness  toward  the  physical 
part  of  us  makes  not  for  true  refinement.  A  Rabelaisian 
embrace,  with  all  the  cosmos  standing  by  in  wholesome 
participation,  is  not  dangerous.  But  in  perfimied  al- 
coves, with  boudoir  languishings  and  a  Madame  Pom- 
padour luxuriousness,  the  elementary  fire  we  have  so 
massively  inherited  is  blown  into  a  conflagrating  flame. 
The  French  Revolution  was  caused  by  the  libertinism 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  249 

of  the  ruling  class,  product  of  the  artificiality  into  which 
Versailles  had  fallen.  The  followers  of  Rousseau  were 
seeking  a  return  to  Nature.  They  called  each  other 
"citizen"  —  citoyen  —  and  they  made  an  attempt  to 
estabUsh  Paris  into  a  commune.  That  program  for 
correcting  the  libertine  trend  was  sound.  Labor  sweetens 
everything.  Roses,  the  wine  jug,  and  red-lipped  kisses 
are  not  a  peril  to  society;  provided  that  the  woman  with 
her  own  hands  grew  the  roses,  and  the  man  was  himself 
the  vineyard's  cultivator. 

Moderns  think  to  "get  away  from  the  physical." 
Preacher  and  teacher  portray  mankind  as  a  creature 
half-emerged  from  the  mire,  and  strugghng  to  get  free 
his  hinder  parts.  It  is  a  false  theology.  Progress  con- 
sists not  in  getting  away  from  Nature  but  in  taking 
Nature  along  with  us.  We  have  been  advancing  on  too 
narrow  a  front.  Nature  is  unintelligent  will.  But  that 
does  not  support  Schopenhauer's  conclusion:  "Annihi- 
late the  Will."  Nature  is  bUnd  stress,  aimless  impulse, 
dumb  striving.  For  that  reason  she  needs  our  hand  to 
guide  her,  our  intellect  to  illumine  her  darkness.  Great 
is  her  joy  when  her  sightless  eyes  are  impregnated  with  a 
germ  and  principle  of  hght.  MunicipaUty  is  the  cult  of 
mutuahty  between  the  two.  Then  Nature  sings 
thorough-base  to  the  thin  squeakings  of  the  intellect; 
and  life  intones  a  symphonic  splendor.  In  people,  this 
blend  of  intellect  and  emotion  forms  the  attribute  known 
as  charm.  Charm  is  neither  the  sharp  thing  known  as 
wit,  nor  the  clownish  thing  known  as  fun;  but  a  union 
of  the  two  into  a  tertium  quid  known  as  humor,  trait 
of  ripeness,  and  largitas. 

Every  spot  of  Nature  groans  and  travails  together, 
waiting  for  a  home-cherishing  folk  who  shall  settle  there 
and  dream  that  inert  mass  into  melody  and  loveUness. 


250  THE  FREE  CITY 

Attica  found  such  a  folk;  the  Lebanon  range  in  Sj^a 
found  such  a  folk;  Latium  found  such  a  folk;  the  Valley 
of  the  Arno,  where  Florence  uprears  in  shapeUness,  found 
such  a  folk.  So  the  rock  became  supple  to  their  touch. 
Stones  upbuilt  themselves  into  carved  work.  Those 
Free  Cities  were  naught  less  than  a  compact  between  the 
people  and  their  landscape,  a  partnership  in  toil  and 
song  and  glory.  Their  art  was  quarried  out  of  their  own 
chunk  of  space.  Their  melodies  sang  the  songs  resound- 
ing in  the  woods  and  waters  around  them;  or  set  to  music 
the  sough  of  the  wind  through  those  treetops.  "Not 
built  but  born,"  said  Vasari  of  a  lovely  edifice.  Nature 
is  the  master-craftsman.  Great  thoughts  do  not  come 
by  thinking.  Release  the  Subconscious;  then  genii  will 
do  the  task  better  than  we. 

National  patriotism  is  a  diffused  warmth,  like  wood 
heated  to  a  tepid  temperature.  Civic  patriotism  is  that 
same  heat  concentrated  on  a  small  spot  of  the  wood, 
raising  it  now  to  the  combustion  point  so  that  it  bursts 
into  flame.  In  the  city  commonwealths  of  history,  the 
mind  of  man  exhibits  fire,  not  mere  tepidity.  City- 
worship  penetrated  a  leaven  under  the  landscape,  lifting 
it  airily  into  towers  and  porticoes  and  colonnades.  The 
terrain  was  quickened  to  a  vital  glow.  Every  peak  be- 
came topped  with  a  temple.  The  granite  hill  effervesced 
into  dome-bubbles  of  aerial  lightness. 

In  those  Free  Cities,  the  craftsman  was  seized  by  an 
unexpected  unempowerment.  The  community  was  a 
navel  cord  connecting  him  with  Nature;  whereby  a 
circulation  of  her  blood  was  set  up  in  his  veins,  Uke  the 
umbilicus  to  a  prenatal  baby.  The  rich  and  the  poor 
lived  together.  The  whole  city  was  hke  a  warm  room. 
I  know  that  more  people  have  gone  to  hell  by  reason  of 
loneUness,  than  through  any  other  cause.    In  those  com- 


THE  SOCIAL  STATE  251 

monwealths  a  good-neighborliness  prevailed.  Democ- 
racy melted  them  into  a  communion.  Men  like  Leonardo 
wrought  in  the  workshop.  Pottery,  stone-cutting,  smith- 
work,  joinery  led  up  into  the  finest  branches  in  those 
arts.  We  behold  Benvenuto,  furnace  bar  in  hand; 
bossing  the  metal,  with  his  enamellers,  and  painting  on 
the  flux.  The  highest  and  the  lowest  had  a  bowing 
acquaintance.  There  was  no  factory  district  separated 
from  the  residential  sections.  The  arts  and  the  crafts 
were  identical.  The  principle  of  community,  taking  the 
form  of  a  sovereign  political  establishment,  does  mightily 
arouse  the  social  affections.  The  municipal  common- 
wealth is  a  spiritual  chemistry  for  transforming  limestone, 
mud-turtles,  and  the  meditations  of  the  heart,  into  a 
garden  of  God  full  of  glory. 


CHAPTER  XVin 

PERSONALITY 

AN  individual  is  the  fractional  part  of  a  human 
being.  Ego-government  is  not  Self-government. 
The  Self  is  the  community;  the  Swarm  and  the 
bees.  In  harping  on  the  goodness  of  God,  the  modem 
world  has  lost  sight  of  the  greatness  of  God.  The  Most 
High  does  not  think  in  terms  of  Tom,  Dick,  or  Harry; 
but  rather,  in  terms  of  Philadelphias,  Galvestons,  Pitts- 
burghs,  Rochesters,  and  Sacramentos.  An  ego  has  some 
power  of  locomotion.  So  also  have  corpuscles  in  the  blood 
stream.  But  the  ego  cannot  exist  when  cut  asunder 
from  the  community;  as  a  corpuscle  cannot  exist  when 
fished  from  the  serum  of  which  it  is  a  part. 

Personality  is  life  at  its  highest.  K  the  ego  were  the 
seat  of  personality,  individual  man  would  be  the  supreme 
unit,  the  crown  and  apex  of  the  cosmos.  A  flattering 
philosophy  to  the  egomania  that  is  in  all  of  us,  heritage 
from  old  jungle  days.  Nationalism,  true  to  its  pohcy  of 
Laissez  faire,  encourages  that  creed.  So  we  see  the  schools 
teaching  a  code  of  private  advancement.  The  pulpits 
preach  individual  salvation.  Proverbs  and  maxims  of 
the  street  declare  a  cult  of  individual  well-being:  "Look 
out  for  Number  One";  "Every  man  for  himself"; 
"Self-preservation  is  nature's  first  law."  "Do  others, 
or  they  will  do  you."     Our  periodicals  that  cater  to  the 

self-satisfied  classes  carry  photogravures  of  the  egos  that 

252 


PERSONALITY  253 

have  achieved  mdividualistic  success.  Thus  the  sweet 
cohesion  of  society  is  hacked  asunder.  Solidarity  is 
nuUified.  No  longer  is  the  ratio  between  the  State  and 
the  ego  that  of  supreme  and  subordinate.  But  instead, 
a  disjointed  confusion.  The  people  are  a  wandering 
sheep;  unshepherded;  like  to  be  lost. 

Personality  is  not  an  attribute  of  individuals  but  of 
municipalities.  The  community  is  the  primate,  behind 
which  the  ego  must  retire  in  lowly  submissiveness.  So 
clearly  did  Aristotle  perceive  this,  that  he  limited  the 
title  of  statehood  to  the  community.  Criticising  a  cer- 
tain suggestion  of  another,  looking  to  political  regrouping, 
he  says,  "Such  an  arrangement  would  constitute  a  nation 
and  not  a  state."  "State"  means.  That  which  stands. 
It  is  status,  as  opposed  to  the  chaos  that  results  when 
other  units  are  sovereign.  It  finds  an  echo  in  the  German 
STADT,  meaning  City;  and  the  Holland  staat.  In  the 
science  of  society  the  Athenians  were  the  masters  of  us 
all;  and  Aristotle  here  was  the  master  Athenian.  There- 
fore when  he  identifies  municipahty  and  statehood,  there 
is  a  reason.  The  community  is  the  universal  center. 
That  center  must  stand.  So  we  call  it  the  "state," 
"that  which  is  fixed";  the  shaft  of  the  great  wheel, 
steadfast  and  swinging  not,  in  order  that  all  the  other 
parts  may  swing  freely. 

The  only  enemy  we  have  is  selfishness.  How  to  veto 
the  private  spirit  in  every  child  of  Adam  and  make  him 
pubHc  spirited,  is  the  problem  of  problems.  When  that 
is  solved,  every  other  problem  is  easily  untangled.  When 
that  is  unsolved,  the  solution  of  every  other  problem  still 
leaves  life  a  bellowing  hell.  To  greaten  the  individual 
with  knowledge  and  power,  unless  there  be  a  center  out- 
side of  himself,  fixed  and  solid,  to  hold  him  to  an  orbit,  is 
to  work  harm  rather  than  good.    Except  the  shaft  of  the 


254  THE  FREE  CITY 

wheel  be  in  a  firm-set  axle  box,  increase  in  the  speed  of  the 
circumference  of  that  wheel  is  a  danger  to  the  entire  ap- 
paratus. As  America  is  discovering  —  she  who  has 
Uberated  a  demon  of  individualism,  which  now  rides 
rough  over  laws  and  precedents  and  equity.  The  politi- 
cal establishment  that  can  hold  supremacy  over  the  ego, 
is  the  rightful  center  of  the  scheme  of  things;  is  entitled 
to  the  crown  of  personaHty. 

NationaHsm's  incapacity  to  repress  egoism  is  tragically 
attested.  It  summons  the  individual  to  give  up  his 
private  life  and  identify  himself  in  spiritual  miion  with 
a  hundred  millions  of  people,  stretched  over  a  continent 
and  far  islands  of  the  sea.  In  every  choice  he  makes,  he 
is  not  to  think  first  of  himself  but  he  is  to  think  first  of 
this  immeasurable  mass;  must  not  consult  first  his  own 
good  but  their  good.  He  is  to  lose  himself  in  the  well- 
being  of  people,  most  of  whom  he  never  saw  and  never 
will  see,  many  of  them  living  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
globe  from  himself,  speaking  other  languages  than  his 
own,  surrounded  by  a  different  climate;  peoples  aUen 
to  him  in  the  thousand  things  that  constitute  intimacy. 

And  what  is  the  answer  of  the  individual  to  this  sum- 
mons? A  polite  refusal.  Any  other  answer  would  be  a 
psychological  impossibiUty.  Jesus  himself,  the  most 
pubUc-minded  man  that  ever  walked  our  planet,  en- 
larged himself  to  the  dimensions  of  a  state  that  was 
seventy-five  miles  long  and  twenty-five  miles  wide;  and 
he  repeatedly  vetoed  proposals  to  stretch  himself  beyond. 
Psychology  supports  him  ia  that  veto.  Had  he  consented 
to  diffuse  his  thought  and  efforts  over  a  thousand  miles 
of  geography,  his  life-strength  would  have  spread  itself 
so  thinly  as  to  lose  aU  tang  and  flavor.  He  knew  that 
soul  is  measured,  not  alone  by  the  area  of  dispersal,  but 
also  by  the  intensity  of  its  energizings.    An  ounce  of 


PERSONALITY  255 

butter  that  tries  to  dress  a  wagon  load  of  bread,  ceases  to 
be  butter,  so  far  as  any  effect  on  our  organs  of  taste. 

Nationality  demands  of  the  people  an  impossible  sacri- 
fice, and  therefore  wins  them  to  no  sacrifice.  As  if  a 
voice  on  top  of  a  precipice  were  to  call  to  strugglers  in  the 
sea  below,  that  they  should  step  up  that  fifty-foot 
precipice.  Those  strugglers  in  the  surf  know  that  they 
cannot  make  a  fifty-foot  leap,  and  so  make  no  effort 
whatsoever.  Nationahsm,  in  its  actual  working,  is  uni- 
versal selfishness,  tempered  here  and  there  by  vague 
altruisms;  even  when  the  nation  is  in  danger,  the  people 
have  to  be  coerced  to  her  defence,  by  conscription. 

Municipality  makes  not  so  exorbitant  a  demand  on  the 
individual.  It  asks  him  to  lose  himself  in  something 
larger,  but  not  in  something  too  large:  the  community, 
his  own  neighborhood;  a  group  that  is  breathing  the  same 
air  he  breathes,  drinking  from  the  same  fountain,  heated 
by  the  same  sunrise,  chilled  by  the  same  frost,  subject  to 
the  same  pestilences,  speaking  the  same  dialect,  exposed 
to  the  same  dangers,  rejoicing  in  the  same  achievements. 
Said  Aristotle:  "The  size  of  the  state  must  be  no  larger 
than  can  be  taken  in  at  a  single  glance."  Public  spirit 
is  not  a  matter  for  the  great  crises  of  life.  It  is  a  daily 
and  habitual  preference  of  the  common  weal  over  private 
inclination.  And  that  is  morality.  Also,  when  heated 
to  the  glowing  point,  it  is  religion.  Self-identification 
with  a  national  mass  is  impossible;  because  that  mass  is 
out  of  sight,  and  therefore  out  of  mind.  Self -identifica- 
tion with  one's  community  is  possible,  because  the  com- 
munal mass  is  present  to  the  five  senses,  which  feed  the 
fires  of  imagination  and  of  action. 

"Self  is  so  small,  make  me  a  part  of  something  larger," 
is  the  cry  of  every  normal  heart.  But  that  "something 
larger"  must  not  be  colossal.    "With  an  instinctive  knowl- 


256  THE  FREE  CITY 

edge,  man  knows  that  too  much  of  self-abnegation  were 
as  bad  as  too  little.  The  sentimental  gusher  that  asks 
a  man  to  love  the  hundred  million  people  with  the  same 
love  wherewith  one  loves  one's  family  and  oneself,  is 
listened  to  with  good-natured  tolerance,  because  those  in 
the  pew  know  that  the  preacher  doesn't  mean  it.  That 
pulpiteer,  if  his  congregation  should  propose  to  put  the 
program  concretely  into  action,  would  recant  his  code 
of  so  extreme  self-renunciation.  "Charity  begins  at 
home,"  would  be  his  quick  modification  of  the  message; 
and,  "if  any  man  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  especially 
for  those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith  and 
is  worse  than  an  infidel." 

The  municipahty  is  the  larger  Self.  In  asking  of  the 
ego  a  renunciation  to  that  extent,  it  asks  not  that  the  man 
renounce  self-interest.  Self-interest  is  never  renounced, 
never  can  be  renounced.  The  sentimentalists  who 
preach  otherwise  preach  a  delusion.  Self-interest  is  the 
motor  of  life;  ever  has  been,  is  now  and  ever  will  be. 
You  cannot  fight  self-interest.  Your  arguments  in  fight- 
ing it  will  be  appeals  to  self-interest.  Man  will  give  up  a 
small  gain  for  the  prospect  of  a  larger  gain.  But  the  gain 
has  got  to  be  there,  really  and  palpably  there.  Senti- 
mentalism  doesn't  move  the  world;  self-interest  moves 
the  world.  The  pietists  in  their  world-forgetting  "resig- 
nation" are  not  practising  resignation.  They  are  giving 
up  the  gold  of  this  world,  for  harps  and  crowns  in  heaven 
made  of  that  metal.  The  disinterested  man  is  to  that 
extent  a  defunct  man.  Annihilation  is  the  only  form  of 
resignation.  One  can  postpone  gratification.  One  can 
choose  a  loftier  gratification  for  a  lower  one.  But  no  — 
hving  —  creature  ever  yet  renounced  gratification. 

Municipahty  is  based  on  that  law  of  human  nature. 
It  does  not  oppose  the  self-regarding  instinct.     It  uses 


PERSONALITY  257 

that  instinct.  Recognizing  that  greed  is  always  and 
everywhere  the  wheel-grease,  it  rebaptizes  greed  into 
pubUc  spirit.  It  shows  the  man  that  community  welfare 
is  his  own  welfare;  that  community  enrichment  is  self- 
enrichment.  Enlarged  to  a  community's  diameter,  it  is 
no  longer  covetousness  but  altruism.  Citizenship  is  the 
higher  selfishness.  But  when  selfishness  is  thus  sub- 
limated, it  ceases  to  be  selfishness;  as  water  at  the  boiling 
point  takes  on  a  totally  new  mode  of  functioning.  In  the 
interest  of  self-advantage,  it  asks  the  man  to  work  for 
the  commune's  advantage;  that  he  close  up  the  private 
pump,  and  help  dig  the  public  water  works.  Gets  him 
to  seek  his  Hvelihood  and  his  pleasures  in  co-operation  with 
his  fellow  men,  rather  than  in  egoistic  isolation.  It  de- 
clares that  a  self-surrender  of  this  sort  is  the  prelude  to 
self-discovery.  An  appeal  of  this  nature  is  responded  to. 
That  is  why  the  community  state  is  practicable,  and  is 
the  only  form  of  society  that  is  practicable.  It  recog- 
nizes that  man  is  a  seK-interested  animal,  and  ought  to 
be.  So  it  takes  that  self-interest,  enlarges  it  to  a  com- 
munity's diameter,  and  thereby  transforms  the  devil 
thing  into  a  heavenly  thing.  Municipahty  is  the  magician 
that  puts  perfect  selfishness  into  the  hat  and  pulls  out 
perfect  altruism. 

When  a  man  has  become  enlarged  to  community  size, 
he  is  altered  from  a  biped  wearing  clothes  into  a  human 
being.  Thereupon  the  enlargement  of  his  mind  goes 
further,  and  eventuates  in  world  consciousness.  This 
explains  why  people  in  small  states  have  the  broadest 
vision.  Attica,  smallest  of  countries,  produced  philoso- 
phers and  statesmen  the  reach  of  whose  mentaHty  was 
only  bounded  by  the  edge  of  the  universe.  Egoism  is  the 
boiling  surf  at  the  bottom  of  the  fifty-foot  precipice.  The 
city  republic  is  a  shelf  let  into  that  precipice,  low  enough 


258  THE  FREE  CITY 

to  be  reached  by  the  strugglers  in  the  water.  Once  they 
get  onto  that  support,  their  feet  being  now  on  soHd  rock, 
they  can  chmb  unUmitedly. 

A  nation  is  large,  but  is  made  up  of  small  people.  A 
Free  City  is  small,  and  is  made  up  of  great  people.  In 
contrast  to  the  animaHsm  that  prevails  under  other 
political  forms,  municipaUty  breeds  humanism.  It  is  the 
supreme  state,  at  the  mid-distance  where  private  ad- 
vantage and  public  advantage  shake  hands.  Nor  can 
one  read  in  the  seeds  of  time  any  future  form  of  state  that 
will  supplant  it.  Every  child  coming  into  the  world  is 
an  animal  —  "total  depravity"  was  the  veracious  term 
our  forefathers  employed.  To  take  this  raw  material 
that  will  be  thrust  upon  us  through  all  generations  and 
transform  it  into  world  consciousness,  will  require  that 
an  intermediate  stage  be  present.  And  that  intermediate 
stage  is  the  community.  That  upflow  of  crude  animahsm 
from  the  depths  of  Nature  will  never  cease.  Therefore 
the  municipal  form  of  state  will  never  be  out  of  fashion; 
neither  on  Planet  Earth,  nor  any  other  planet.  Munici- 
pahty  is  the  absolute  pohtical  establishment.  No  mat- 
ter how  we  multiply  our  universities,  the  primary  school 
will  always  be  needed;  because  babes  will  ever  be  with 
us,  and  will  have  to  hsp  the  alphabet  in  order  to  go  finally 
to  Shakespeare  and  Bacon. 

They  who  climb  high  see  far.  The  ego,  once  it  has 
risen  to  the  level  of  a  conununity  miad,  surveys  from 
that  summit  all  the  globe,  becomes  in  very  truth  a  world 
citizen.  Civic  patriotism  is  the  loyalty  within  whose 
powerful  flanks  all  other  loyalties  are  germinated. 
Clearly  stands  it  registered  in  the  human  story:  In  httle 
repubUcs  man  takes  on  a  heightened  world  sense.  There 
he  is  sheltered,  but  not  cloistered.  Since  Father  Adam 
until  now,  city  commonwealths  have  eschewed  militarism. 


PERSONALITY  259 

So  much  so  that  it  has  become  a  proverb;  and  to  be  "in 
citizen's  clothes"  is  to  be  contradistinguished  from  one 
in  mihtary  dress.  It  makes  for  a  civilian  state;  a  foreign 
poUcy  dictated  by  minds  that  have  been  wrought  to  a 
liberal  hospitaUty. 

The  transforming  of  an  ego  into  a  citizen,  is  his  reli- 
gious conversion.  It  redeems  him  from  the  lost  and 
damned  estate  of  original  sin  —  perfect  selfishness  —  into 
a  world-serviceable  human  being.  The  municipal  re- 
pubUc  is  a  rehgious  revival  in  perpetual  session.  That 
is  why  the  Most  High  is  wholly  addicted  to  this  polity 
of  state.  Municipahty  means,  The  Giving  of  Gifts.  It 
comes  from  the  Latin  word  munis,  "service"  (seen  also 
in  the  word  "munificent");  and  from  capio,  "to  take." 
Municipal  means,  "Taking  up  your  service,"  "doing 
your  duty."  And  that  was  the  historical  sense  of  the 
word.  The  organization  thus  of  social  mindedness  into 
a  governmental  fabric,  with  all  the  powers  of  the  State 
to  urge  and  reinforce  it  —  do  you  account  that  merely  a 
secular  thing?  The  municipal  republic  is  a  temple,  and 
her  civic  transactions  are  a  holy  worship.  The  town  hall 
is  the  altar  in  that  temple;  workshops  intone  the  thunder- 
ous anthem;  each  home  is  a  stained  glass  window  in  that 
temple;  all  of  the  people  are  the  congregation;  the  bible 
they  study  is  the  book  called  Daily  Events;  and  the  Spirit 
of  Fellowship  is  the  preacher.  Children  in  that  churchly 
state  are  formally  inducted  into  citizenship;  it  is  their 
confirmation,  their  new  birth,  and  a  work  of  grace. 
City-worship  is  the  religion  that  will  make  skepticism 
ridiculous. 

This  fusing  of  ego-beings  into  a  community  Being, 
creates  no  new  energy,  but  it  creates  a  new  type  of  energy. 
The  rays  of  the  sun,  beating  on  a  sheet  of  paper,  merely 
warm  it.     Put  a  focussing  lens  betwixt  the  sun  and  that 


260  THE  FREE  CITY 

paper,  the  rays  of  the  sun  now  are  not  different  chemically 
from  what  they  were  before;  but  see,  they  lift  the  tem- 
perature to  the  burning  point,  and  the  paper  bursts  into 
flame.  When  human  beings  concentrate  into  a  free  and 
sovereign  community,  a  force  has  entered  the  world  that 
was  not  there  before;  and  whose  presence  spells  the  dif- 
ference between  savagery  and  civilization.  We  are 
meant  to  be  petals  of  a  flower.  Tear  the  petals  severally 
from  the  communal  organism,  the  bulk  is  still  the  same. 
Count  them,  the  number  is  the  same.  Weigh  the  botani- 
cal debris,  the  heft  is  the  same.  But  those  petals,  dis- 
membered and  Uttering  the  ground  —  are  they  the  same 
as  when  incorporated  into  an  organic  whole  and  rooted 
in  the  earth?  When  formed  into  a  flower,  petals  give 
off  a  perfume  to  sweeten  the  air  on  every  side.  But, 
torn  from  each  other  and  rotting,  they  send  forth  a  stench. 

"PersonaUty"  derives  from  per,  meaning  "through," 
and  "soNARE,"  "to  sound  or  speak";  as  in  "sonorous," 
and  "resonance."  In  the  Roman  theatricals  the  actor 
often  wore  a  wooden  mask  that  gave  his  voice  carrying 
power.  This  mask  was  known  as  persona,  "the 
thing  he  sounded  through,"  "his  medium  of  communica- 
tion with  the  world." 

Individuals  fuse  to  form  a  municipality;  municipali- 
ties federate  to  form  a  world.  That  is  the  etei;nal  and 
God-given  jurisprudence.  In  it,  the  individual  does  not 
operate  directly  upon  the  outside  world,  but  through  the 
medium  of  the  state,  by  the  Department  of  Foreign  Re- 
lations. The  ego  is  a  water  spring  and  world  altruism  is 
the  ocean.  To  ask  that  spring  to  reach  the  ocean  by  a 
channel  of  its  own,  is  to  ask  impossibility;  any  such  at- 
tempt by  the  multitude  of  springs,  results  in  a  swamp. 
MunicipaUty,  on  the  other  hand,  gathers  the  tiny  stream- 
lets into  a  river;  and  now,  confluent,  they  reach  the  ocean. 


PERSONALITY  261 

The  difference  between  the  swamp  and  the  river,  is  the 
difference  between  egoism  and  municipaUsm, 

The  Free  City  is  personaUty;  it  is  "the  thing  we  sound 
through,"  if  we  sound  at  all.  In  these  times,  with  the 
disappearance  of  city  commonwealths  and  their  sparkling 
vivacities,  personaUty  is  vanishing.  What  strength  of 
personality  still  appears  is  a  left-over;  and,  like  second 
or  third  steepings  of  tea,  gets  weaker.  Municipality  is 
the  sounding  board.  It  collects  many  ego  voices  into  a 
giant  Voice,  whose  accent  carries  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
That  united  Voice  thereupon  is  heard  by  each  individual 
whose  whisperings  contributed  to  form  it.  So  that  he 
also  learns  to  speak  forth  orotundly;  is  able,  if  need  be, 
to  utter  his  speech  even  in  contradiction  of  that  giant 
Voice.  Thus  great  speakers  and  writers  have  always 
been  formed.  Said  Aristotle:  "The  state  is  by  nature 
clearly  prior  to  the  family  and  to  the  individual,  since  the 
whole  is  of  necessity  prior  to  the  part." 

It  is  a  chimera  held  by  many,  that  a  municipaUty  is  the 
sum  of  the  individuals  that  compose  it.  Such  a  con- 
glomerate would  not  be  a  commune  but  a  caterwauling. 
Personality  is  Soul.  Soul  is  a  social  thing.  Tell  the 
average  man  that  he  is  not  a  soul,  but  is  a  fragment  of  a 
Communal  Soul  in  this  or  previous  ages,  he  will  laugh  you 
to  scorn.  Egotistocrat  that  he  is,  he  will  assure  you  that 
he  is  an  entity  complete  in  himself;  a  unit;  and  that,  by 
combination  of  these  units,  society  is  formed.  So  long 
as  modernity  is  given  over  to  that  strong  delusion,  it  will 
be  the  dislocated  spectacle  it  now  presents,  a  disarray 
of  jangHng  egos;  disjecta  membra.  The  Cubists  and 
"Queerists,"  pictoriahzing  the  human  figure  in  the 
hkeness  of  a  scrapheap  of  mechanical  debris,  are  sub- 
consciously picturing  the  actual  nowaday  fact.  The  in- 
falUbihty  of  the  collective  man,  was  the  aforetime  and 


262  THE  FREE  CITY 

municipal  idea.  The  infallibility  of  each  and  every  man, 
is  modernity's  amendment.  It  is  producing  the  disor- 
ganization and  indiscipline  we  behold.  The  collective 
Will  is  will-power.  But,  when  the  ego  does  the  willing, 
it  is  wiKukiess. 

Soul,  or  personality,  is  a  collective  entity.  A  solitary 
individual  could  not  have  a  soul;  could  not  have  even  a 
being.  Thoreau  and  Robinson  Crusoe,  we  saw,  owed 
their  existence  to  the  principle  of  association.  The  first 
man  who  emerged  from  the  ape  family  was  not  so  far 
removed  but  that  he  could  still  associate  with  those  four- 
footed  folk,  and  did;  he  intermarried  with  those  an- 
thropoid kinsmen. 

We  have  got  to  stop  thinking  in  terms  of  individuals 
and  begin  to  think  in  terms  of  communities.  Modern 
life  has  gone  off  into  paltriness  because  we  are  everlast- 
ingly thinking  of  our  private  selves  —  "my"  troubles, 
"my"  pleasures,  "my"  plans,  "my"  enemies,  "my" 
beautifulness,  "my"  salvation.  By  that  lopsidedness, 
life  has  become  warped  away  from  symmetry  and  grace. 
These  meums  and  tuums  must  give  way  to  an  overarch- 
ing suuM.  We  must  come  forth  out  of  that  ego  swamp, 
onto  the  terra  firma  of  community  consciousness.  We 
must  talk  of  the  municipahty:  "her"  troubles,  "her" 
pleasures,  "her"  plans,  "her"  enemies,  "her"  beautiful- 
ness, "her"  salvation.  In  the  city  commonwealth, 
people  sell  their  lookingglass  and  subscribe  for  the 
Municipal  Record. 

Except  in  the  conmaunity,  man  has  no  existence,  unus 
HOMO,  NULLUS  HOMO.  Isolation  is  another  word  for 
lunacy;  a  relapse  to  the  fear-mindedness  and  fight- 
mindedness  of  jungle  days;  forth  from  which,  fellowship 
delivered  us.  It  is  possible  for  a  man  to  disengage  him- 
self from  the  social  network;  and  he  is  taken  to  the  crazy 


PERSONALITY  263 

house  the  next  morning.  Sanity  and  sociability  are 
convertible  terms.  Visit  a  Imiatic  asylum,  you  will  see 
one  keeper  presiding  over  fifty  inmates.  "But  is  it  not 
dangerous?"  exclaims  the  visitor;  "those  fifty  might  form 
a  common  cause  and  overpower  the  keeper."  Insane 
people  cannot  form  a  common  cause.  When  they  have 
recovered  that  capacity,  they  are  cured,  are  no  longer  in 
need  of  a  keeper.  In  the  contrary  direction,  prisoners 
doomed  to  soUtary  confinement  lose  their  reason.  Exiles 
in  Siberia,  a  woodsman  cut  off  ia  his  cabin  by  the  snows, 
a  traveller  lost  and  soUtary,  have  much  ado  to  keep  from 
going  mad. 

The  true  Self  is  the  community.  All  consciousness  is 
social  consciousness.  Because  psychologists  are  still  for 
the  most  part  back  in  the  ego  philosophy,  they  have  been 
unable  to  explain  consciousness.  Coming  into  the  world 
as  a  biped  on  the  vegetable  plane,  we  do  not  in  our  few 
years  of  life  develop  so  wonderful  a  thing  as  consciousness. 
We  establish  contact  with  the  body  of  consciousness  al- 
ready developed.  Consciousness  is  the  highest  form  of 
energy.  It  is  a  blending,  through  slow  consecutive  gene- 
rations, of  many  Uttle  knowings  into  a  united  and  mighty 
knowing,  which  now  knows  that  it  knows.  This  becomes 
a  permanent  Spiritual  Mass.  Each  individual  born 
thereafter  who  opens  himself  thereunto,  is  made  free  to 
the  whole  of  it;  as  an  estuary  of  the  ocean  partakes  of 
the  freshening  inflow  of  the  tides;  so  that,  for  all  its 
diminutive  size,  its  waters  are  of  the  same  quaHty  as  the 
water  of  the  ocean.  This  was  the  truth  towards  which 
Calvin  was  driving.  But  that  other,  the  Arminian  theol- 
ogy, emphasizing  the  individual,  grew  up  later  when 
society  was  granulating  into  particles.  Take  a  child, 
cut  him  off  from  all  contact  with  the  Jehovah  idea  be- 
queathed to  us  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Israel;  cut  him 


264  THE  FREE  CITY 

off  from  all  contact  with  the  law  heritage  bequeathed  to 
us  by  Rome;  cut  him  off  from  all  contact  with  the  artistic 
and  intellectual  traditions  bequeathed  to  us  by  Athens; 
and  cut  him  off  from  all  contact  with  the  civil  formations 
engendered  in  om*  own  day  by  these  massive  inheritances 
—  how  much  of  a  mental  life  would  that  child  develop 
in  threescore  years  and  ten?  Calvin  was  right:  The 
individual  is  helpless.  All  that  is  of  worth  in  us  is  the 
doing  of  Another  than  we. 

Fellowship  is  the  creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
PoUtical  science  is  able  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  uni- 
verse, which  quest  the  philosophers  have  abandoned  as 
hopeless.  How  to  get  something  out  of  an  original  noth- 
ing, has  been  their  difficulty;  so  that  they  frankly  ac- 
knowledge themselves  non-plussed.  That  difficulty  has 
arisen  from  a  false  conception  of  what  constitutes  "noth- 
ingness." The  popular  mind  regards  space  as  an  empti- 
ness amidst  which  our  universe  floats,  a  universe  of  a 
given  quantity  that  cannot  be  added  to  or  subtracted 
from. 

There  is  no  such  condition  anywhere  as  "nothingness." 
That  which  seems  to  be  an  area  of  "nothingness"  is  a 
posture  of  two  equal  forces  in  head-on  colhsion.  So  long 
as  they  remain  in  that  posture  they  cancel  each  other. 
Two  locomotives,  of  the  same  horsepower  and  pushing 
against  each  other,  would  present  to  an  onlooker  the  ap- 
pearance of  perfect  rest;  from  the  movementless  scene 
he  would  infer  that  the  locomotives  were  dead.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  interiorly  throbbing  with  power;  but, 
neutraUzing  each  other,  the  force  hberated  is  zero.  Now 
let  the  locomotives  be  worked  in  cooperation  instead  of 
in  mutual  thwarting,  straightway  the  zero  is  changed  into 
a  mighty  force.  That  zero  horsepower  gave  way  to 
a  thousand  horsepower,  not  by  creating  something  out 


PERSONALITY  265 

of  nothing,  but  by  changing  a  status  of  opposition  into 
one  of  cooperation.  It  is  the  calculus,  higher  than 
arithmetic,  whereby  cyphers  can  be  added  and  form 
integers. 

Fellowship  is  the  creator  of  the  universe,  not  by  gen- 
erating matter  but  by  releasing  it.  A  negative  is  com- 
posed of  two  positives  that  are  fighting  each  other  to  a 
standstill.  Let  a  peacemaker  arrive  and  get  them  into 
teamwork,  the  nought  now  is  a  figure  2.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  absolute  nothingness  or  noughtness.  What 
seems  so  is  a  locking  of  horns  by  two  equal  and  self-can- 
celhng  forces.  When  amity  replaces  the  horn-pushings, 
energy  is  released;  but  no  new  energy  was  created.  That 
which  seems  creation  is  an  unlocking. 

Thus  the  cosmic  process  ia  at  bottom  an  affair  of  ethics. 
Perfect  hatred  is  perfect  nullity  —  two  powers  in  hostile 
strife  and  reducing  their  efficiency  to  zero.  Creation  is 
a  business  of  changing  opposition  into  cooperation. 
Fellowship  is  the  alpha  and  the  omega.  An  atomic 
monad  of  fellowship  was  the  First  Cause;  a  commence- 
ment so  infinitesimal  that  micro-chemists  shall  never 
plumb  to  that  depth  and  isolate  that  phosphoric  atom 
of  Ught;  as  the  space-field  of  micro-chemistry  contracts, 
the  time-unit  expands;  so  that  an  eternity  would  be  re- 
quired to  travel  back  to  that  original  scintilla.  As  in- 
finitesimal fellowship  was  the  originator  of  this  eternity 
we  inhabit,  so  at  the  opposite  terminus,  universal  fel- 
lowship is  the  goal  ahead  of  us.  Nothing  save  a  moral 
explanation  of  the  universe  will  satisfy  the  facts.  Love 
is  the  author  of  life.  God  is  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
Prime  Mover  at  the  core  of  being. 

The  space  surrounding  our  imiverse  is  not  an  expanse 
of  emptiness.  It  is  a  sea  of  frozen  energy;  an  infinite 
bed  of  forces  locked  in  mutual  strife;    an  intertangled 


266  THE  FREE  CITY 

snarl  of  contentions,  whereby  their  being  is  reduced  to 
zero  —  an  Arctic  waste  of  motionless  quiet.  Our  uni- 
verse is  an  ice-breaker  plowing  through  that  frozen  sea; 
Uberatuig  fields  of  billowing  waters;  forever  annexing 
provinces;  forever  adding  a  new  circumference  to  the 
cosmos.  Scientists  have  elaborated  a  doctrine  known  as 
the  conservation  of  energy.  It  affirms  that  the  sum 
total  of  energy  now  in  existence  can  never  be  annihilated; 
and  so  far,  it  is  true.  But  that  doctrine  cannot  be 
stretched  to  forbid  additions  to  the  present  stock  of  en- 
ergy. The  universe  is  growing;  and  will  continue  to 
grow,  out  of  the  frozen  reaches  of  dormancy  roimd  about 
—  a  vastitude  without  end,  expanding  forever  and  for- 
ever the  frontiers  of  being.  The  only  thing  that  could 
stop  the  universe  from  getting  larger  and  annihilate  the 
present  universe,  would  be  an  increase  of  the  principle  of 
hate  over  the  principle  of  fellowship.  But  that  is  im- 
possible. Hatred  diminishes  being,  and  therefore  makes 
for  weakness.  Fellowship  unlocks  the  frozen  power, 
and  so  makes  for  strength.  Love  will  always  bear  away 
the  victory.  Defeat  and  its  weepings  may  endure  for  a 
night,  but  triumph  cometh  in  the  morning.  With  God 
it  is  always:  Heads,  I  win;  tails,  I  don't  lose. 

The  Municipal  Movement,  setting  in  hke  a  tidal  heave 
wherever  community  consciousness  is  arising,  is  a  re- 
suscitation of  the  principle  of  love  to  make  stand  against 
the  uncivilizing  principle  of  hate  and  greed  and  bloodi- 
ness. It  is  Personality  —  whose  other  name  is  God  — 
breaking  forth  Uke  dawn  upon  a  sick  and  bitter  night. 
God  is  fellowship;  they  that  dwell  in  fellowship  dwell  in 
God  and  God  dwelleth  in  them.  He  annoimces:  "Where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst."  Egoism  is  atheism.  Lovers  are  not  atheists. 
How  skeptical  soever  he  may  have  been,  let  a  man  fall 


PERSONALITY  267 

in  love,  his  unbelievings  drop  from  him  like  a  cast-off 
garment.  Municipality  is  the  Absolute;  it  is  fellowship 
at  its  highest  power.  It  is  Love  taking  on  a  form  and 
texture  of  palpabihty.  God  is  weary  of  being  disem- 
bodied. The  Free  City  is  God  becoming  a  person.  A 
self-governing  community  is  not  merely  an  upholstery  to 
the  reUgious  life.  It  is  the  soul  and  body  of  the  reli- 
gious life.  City-worship  gave  religion  to  the  world;  and 
it  alone  can  preserve  religion  in  the  world.  An  energetic 
beHef  in  the  personahty  of  God  has  always  been  a  singu- 
larity of  city  states. 

Personality  is  a  sense  of  identity.  It  is  the  announce- 
ment, "I  am  I. "  Self-affirmation  is  a  colossal  enterprise, 
and  can  be  compassed  only  by  a  colossal  entity,  the 
State;  which  alone  is  of  sufficient  bulk  to  dominate  the 
Space-field,  and  of  unruptured  continuity  so  as  to  sail 
the  Time-flow  unquailed  by  that  turbulent  stream. 
To  say  "I  am  I,"  requires  something  of  massiveness, 
which  is  collectivity;  and  it  requires  something  that 
shall  have  persistence,  which  is  continuity.  Collectiv- 
ity and  continuity,  we  saw,  are  attributes  only  of 
small  states. 

Biologically,  the  ego  philosophies  are  unsound.  The 
water  pipe  through  the  street  is  as  much  a  part  and  parcel 
of  a  man  as  his  food  pipe.  Water  that  has  entered  the 
stomach  is  no  more  truly  inside  of  the  man  than  when 
it  was  in  the  city  main.  Our  bodies  are  a  folding  together 
of  a  flat  disc,  leaving  a  tubular  space  —  the  alimentary 
canal  —  through  the  middle  of  us.  Every  board  of 
health  is  proof  that  we  cannot  tell  where  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  plumber  leaves  off  and  that  of  the  doctor  begins. 
In  sajdng  which,  I  am  not  trying  to  lower  the  physician 
to  the  status  of  a  plumber.  I  am  Ufting  the  plumber  to 
the    professional    dignity     we    accord    the    physician. 


268  THE  FREE  CITY 

The  city  is  a  personality.  To  keep  her  water  main 
sound  and  clean,  is  quite  as  worthy  a  profession  as  to 
keep  the  alimentary  canal  sound  and  clean. 

The  Free  City  is  a  corporate  being,  a  moral  person,  a 
thinking  and  feeling  entity.  Sovereignty  is  the  core  and 
cause  of  personality.  A  city  cannot  truly  say  "I  am  I," 
except  there  has  first  been  a  declaration  of  municipal  in- 
dependence. Without  self-ownership  there  can  be  no 
sense  of  identity.  From  municipal  seK-assertion,  mighty 
are  the  sequences  that  flow.  War  power,  coinage,  and 
foreign  relations  are  the  excitors,  awakening  the  inhabiters 
of  a  city  to  consciousness.  A  Free  City  is  a  popular  uni- 
versity; a  school  of  statesmanship  into  which  everybody, 
even  to  hod  carriers  and  the  roustabout,  are  matriculated. 
So  the  cold  materials  of  the  mind  are  raised  to  the  melt- 
ing point,  are  fused  into  a  unison  Will.  Heart  beats  so 
close  to  heart  that  they  get  into  rhythmic  tempo,  form 
as  it  were  a  gigantic  Heart  whose  pulsations  ebb  and  flow 
with  the  tides  that  throb  in  the  arteries  of  The  Eternal. 

Sovereignty  gives  to  the  city  a  healthy  segregation, 
that  she  may  collect  her  energies  and  grow  into  a  coherent 
organism.  It  is  the  girdle  that  dresses  her  into  a  trim 
and  athletic  entity.  Bereft  of  self-ownership,  a  city  is  like 
a  corpulent  abdomen  with  no  belt  to  hold  up  the  coUops 
of  fat.  Frontiers  are  as  the  barrel  to  a  cannon;  a  whole- 
some constriction  that  compacts  the  power,  which  other- 
wise would  have  diffused  itself  in  thin  air.  Personality 
requires  to  be  circumscribed.  A  certain  stringency  and 
sequestration  are  essential.  Such  a  commonwealth  re- 
joices in  the  sp)ectacle  of  other  personahties  sharing  with 
it  the  map  of  the  globe.  Treaties  between  high  contract- 
ing powers  form  the  intercourse  of  personahty  with  per- 
sonaUty,  whereby  each  is  reinforced  in  self-respect  by  the 
respect  it  pays  to  the  other. 


PERSONALITY  269 

Municipality  is  holiness  —  wholeness,  a  sense  of  totality. 
It  is  an  esprit  de  corps  operating  on  the  subconscious- 
ness of  the  people  so  that  teamwork  becomes  ingrained; 
men  thereby  get  the  tincture  of  it  before  they  are  born, 
and  restrain  themselves  within  their  appointed  orbits. 
Nationalism  can  never  nose-ring  the  egoisms  that  rage 
bull-headedly  through  all  thoroughfares.  Behold  the 
unbridled  voracities  it  is  letting  loose;  a  scene  going  ever 
more  disorderly,  ever  more  intractable. 

In  a  civic  commonwealth,  men  give  a  devoted  service. 
A  Free  City  controls  her  people,  not  by  dragoons,  but 
by  appointing  the  people  to  control  themselves.  It  is 
the  reUgious  —  rule-from-within  —  method,  as  opposed  to 
the  machine  guns  and  bayonets  of  national  guards. 
Holiness  is  the  rapture  of  totahty,  the  ecstasy  of  incor- 
poration into  the  great  and  true  Self;  separatisms  swal- 
lowed up  in  a  common  affection,  egos  concurring  in  a 
single-hearted  aim.  Like  a  town  after  dark,  ten  thousand 
lights  in  one  blended  halo.  Holiness  puts  a  hook  in  the 
inward  parts,  grapples  men  by  the  heartstrings. 

Beyond  calculation  are  the  spiritualities  implicit  in 
self-government.  By  self-government  the  ages  are  il- 
lumined. And  the  stars  in  their  courses  write  it  on  the 
blackboard  of  the  night.  That  is  why  genius  spurts  up 
in  municipal  eras.  The  Free  City  is  an  alembic  whose 
contents  are  not  mixed  physically  but  chemically;  a 
melting  heat  of  good-comradeship,  in  whose  hberal  and 
intense  communion,  life  is  vivified  to  an  astounding  sen- 
sitivity. In  its  best  estate,  in  those  historic  instances 
where  it  has  more  nearly  come  to  its  perfect  work,  munic- 
ipality is  holiness;  a  spiritual  and  unfelt  conscription.  A 
concert  without  a  baton.  So  it  enlarges  the  scrawny 
biped  into  cosmic  consciousness.  History  says  so:  the 
commune  is  a  human  mass  magnetically  swayed  to  one 


270  THE  FREE  CITY 

pole.  It  is  not  an  overstatement  to  afl&rm  that  munic- 
ipality is  the  universal  formula,  extending  temporally  to 
the  dawn  of  civil  dominion,  and  spatially  to  the  outposts 
of  being.  It  is  the  deification  of  the  State.  For  it  is  the 
principle  by  which  atom  draws  to  atom,  star  to  star,  and 
man  to  his  fellow  man. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE 

NO  ego  shall  inherit  eternal  life.  Municipality  is 
the  Soul,  of  which  we  are  parts;  there,  there  is 
the  seat  of  everlastingness.  The  Christian 
Church  is  an  organization  for  relating  present-day  in- 
dividuals to  the  Soul  of  the  Jerusalem  Commonwealth; 
assuring  them  that  as  they  abide  in  that  Soul  as  branches 
in  the  vine,  they  will  live  forever.  This  survival  from 
that  Palestinian  fund  of  nobleness  has  played  an  incalcu- 
lable part  in  perpetuating  civil  arts  and  a  social  mind.  But 
the  human  species  cannot  Uve  constantly  on  past  per- 
formances. What  measures  of  civiUzation  we  enjoy  are 
tides  from  the  Ocean  of  public  consciousness,  Ocean  that 
has  been  filled  full  by  the  municipal  commonwealths  of 
history.  But  the  d6bris  of  centuries  little  bit  by  bit  clogs 
the  inlet  that  connects  modem  minds  with  that  Universal 
Mind;  so  that  the  freshening  sweep  of  its  waters  into  us 
is  progressively  diminishing.  We  have  got  to  develop 
civic  wellsprinas  of  our  own,  whose  powerful  current  shall 
scour  out  th*"  silted-up  channel.  Only  by  pouring  an 
original  flow  ^"to  that  Ocean  can  we  keep  ourselves  con- 
fluent with  that  invisible  Main  of  waters.  That  Sea 
connects  us  with  the  high  and  holy  One  who  inhabits 
eternity. 

Many  Christians  are  troubled  because  the  Old  Testa- 
ment makes  so  Uttle  of  "personal  immortality";  by  which 

271 


272  THE  FREE  CITY 

they  mean,  Individual  immortality.  The  Israelites  felt 
the  passion  of  eternity.  They  beUeved  in  the  persistence 
of  life  after  death;  but  it  was  the  persistence  of  the  social 
life.  Ego-immortality  would  have  seemed  to  them  a 
shrunken  and  truncated  thing.  Modernistic  communi- 
cations with  the  spirit  world  impart  no  thrill  to  the  heart 
of  us,  quicken  no  impulse  to  energetic  deeds;  their  talk 
is  so  paltry.  Those  ego-ghosts  must  apparently  Uve  a 
mediocre  existence  —  wandering  wraiths,  clothed  in  bore- 
dom. If  immortahty  be  thus  anemic,  it  is  a  question 
whether  the  game  is  worth  the  candle. 

The  Israelites  made  immortahty  credible  by  making  it 
desirable.  The  individual  was  swallowed  up  in  the 
municipal  spirit,  and  in  that  civic  immortahty  he  found 
the  continuance  of  his  own  life.  Ego-salvation,  so  far  from 
being  a  mark  of  advanced  culture,  is  the  sign  of  decadence. 
Self-idolatry  is  a  pathologic  symptom,  tells  of  social 
breakdown.  The  Bible  folk  had  the  instinct  of  collectiv- 
ity. That  is  why  they  were  great.  Exalting  the  com- 
munity, they  sought  by  every  possible  device  to  beat 
down  the  ego  and  keep  him  in  his  proper  place  of  sub- 
serviency. "When  I  consider  the  heavens,  the  work  of 
thy  fingers,  the  moon  and  the  stars  which  thou  hast  or- 
dained, what  is  man?"  The  individual!  He  is  the 
flower  of  a  sunmier's  fortnight,  which  to-day  is,  and  to- 
morrow is  cast  into  the  oven.  He  is  a  vapor;  a  brief 
visibihty;  then  reabsorbed  in  the  mass  from  which  he 
issued.  Man  is  a  grass.  In  the  morning  he  flourisheth 
and  groweth  up;  in  the  evening  he  is  cut  down  and 
withereth.  The  Psahns  are  never  tired,  as  Aristotle  is 
never  tired,  of  declaring  that  Municipahty  is  the  sov- 
ereign: the  great  and  august  Jehovah  Presence,  "the 
root  and  ofiFspring  of  David."  "We  all  do  fade  as  a 
leaf;  and  our  iniquities  like  the  wind  have  taken  us  away. 


THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE      273 

We  are  the  clay,  and  thou  our  potter;  and  we  aU  are  the 
work  of  thy  hands."  Immortality  was  a  by-product;  the 
puny  pond  opening  itself  onto  the  Ocean  in  order  to  make 
the  Ocean  larger;  and  finding  to  its  surprise  that  in  doing 
so  it  had  become  possessed  of  the  Ocean's  amphtude. 

Nor  was  the  teaching  of  Jesus  different  from  that  of 
his  Old  Testament  ancestry.  He  promised  to  his  fol- 
lowers everlastingness  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  But 
that  was  a  municipal  kingdom:  the  Jerusalem  state 
transfigm-ed  into  a  paradise  terrestrial.  Apocaljrpse,  the 
truest  pictorial  presentation  of  New  Testament  immor- 
taUty,  is  Jerusalem  new-modeled;  "the  camp  of  the 
saints,  the  beloved  city."  "These  are  they  which  have 
right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates 
into  the  city."  To  be  cut  off  from  the  civic  fellowship 
was  eternal  death:  "God  shall  take  away  his  part  out 
of  the  book  of  life,  and  out  of  the  holy  city."  "Ye  are 
come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  imto  the  city  of  the  hving 
God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem." 

Palestine  had  a  Psychical  Research  Society.  EUjah, 
Amos,  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  were  successively  presidents 
of  it.  The  prophets  did  exactly  in  their  day  what  the 
psychical  searchers  seek  to  do  for  modernity:  to  bring 
home  to  the  people  a  realization  of  the  departed  past, 
as  a  continuing  factor  in  the  life  of  the  present:  "Saith 
the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob."  Jehovah  was 
their  philosophy  of  history.  The  difference  between  the 
Hterary  style  of  the  prophets  and  the  Uterary  style  of 
modern  communications  from  the  spirit  realm,  affords  a 
criterion  for  comparing  the  worth  of  municipalism  and 
individuahsm.  The  Isaiah  reveahngs  are  Uterature. 
They  are  touched  with  grandeur,  because  they  uttered 
"the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings." 


274  THE  FREE  CITY 

Perhaps  some  may  demur  at  this  literary  test  of  truth 
and  falsity.  I  answer,  the  literary  form  and  the  thought- 
content  have  a  blood  kinship.  Truth  and  beauty  are 
one.  Triviality  of  expression  betrays  falsity  of  theme. 
Expression  power  is  in  exact  ratio  to  brain  power.  Al- 
ways, beauty  of  language  accompanies  truthfulness  of 
vision.  A  shallow  tongue  means  shallow  thinking. 
Form  and  substance  are  twins;  to  the  extent  that  a  pic- 
ture is  worth  while,  it  will  get  unto  itself  a  splendid  frame. 
As  the  words  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  and  Jesus  attest, 
the  social  Soul  voices  itself  in  language  that  goes  ringing 
down  the  ages,  vehicle  of  wisdom  and  of  power  and  of 
beauty.  The  individual  soul,  speaking  from  out  the  past, 
voices  itself  in  back-door  gossip.  Clear  is  the  pragmatic 
test.  The  worth  of  immortaUty  is  not  what  it  does  for 
us  after  death,  but  what  it  does  for  us  in  the  here  and 
now.  If  civic  immortaUty  adds  wisdom  and  power  and 
beauty  to  the  hterature  of  the  world,  and  if  ego  immortal- 
ity adds  nothing  but  small  talk,  then  the  former  is  true 
and  the  latter  is  untrue. 

In  municipal  eras,  man  seeks  immortality  through 
artistic  production.  Said  Keats:  A  thing  of  beauty  is 
a  joy  forever.  It  is  a  joy  forever,  precisely  because  a 
thing  of  beauty  is  built  to  last  forever.  Any  work  of 
man's  hand,  wrought  with  a  view  to  unending  duration, 
is  beautiful.  Art  is  always  sub  specie  .eternitatis.  The 
artist  is  never  an  ego.  He  has  consciousness  of  himself 
only  as  a  part  of  Something  larger.  That  Something  is 
the  communal  Self;  which  transcends  the  generation  that 
now  is;  for  it  had  a  being  in  old  Yesterday  and  will  be 
when  To-day  1ms  dissolved  into  far  off  Tomorrow.  He 
who  creates  in  the  atmosphere  and  aureole  of  this  Im- 
mortal Being,  etemaUzes  himself  and  his  output.  In 
contrast  with  the  ego-worker  who  is  content  if,  by  hook 


THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE      275 

or  by  crook,  he  can  make  his  product  hold  together  his 
lifetime,  the  artist  creates  to  an  eternal  standard.  Foul 
work  is  that  which  is  wrought  to  last  temporarily.  Beau- 
tiful work  is  that  which  is  wrought  to  last  through  long 
durations.  The  social  Soul  creates  art,  because  it  pro- 
duces a  timeless  commodity,  something  fashioned  unto 
everlasting  ideals.  The  private  soul  produces  artifice, 
because  it  works  on  the  stop-gap  principle.  Himself  a 
drop  of  dew,  the  distillation  of  a  transient  hour,  this 
momentary  fellow  produces  naught  but  a  temporahty; 
something  provisional  and  makeshift. 

Architecture  is  that  which  is  built  for  eternity.  It  is 
an  aspiration  towards  immortahty  of  habitat.  This 
principle  of  everlastingness  —  an  abode  stretching  be- 
yond one's  httle  lifetime  —  is  what  gives  to  architecture 
its  distinction.  A  building  that  is  expected  to  come  down 
within  the  generation  of  the  man  who  built  it,  is  not  archi- 
tecture, nor  can  be;  conceal  and  cover  up  as  he  may,  a 
something  of  flimsiness  will  appear  in  the  structure  and 
will  cry  aloud  to  the  passers-by.  Nationalists  build 
cheaply;  because  day  after  tomorrow  we  probably  will 
move.  When  most  truly  itself,  it  puts  upon  the  work 
of  man's  hand  the  damnatory  imprint  of  haste,  flippancy, 
impermanence;  no  edifice  designed  to  gather  atmosphere 
through  generations  of  generations,  beautiful  and  haunt- 
ing in  its  veil  of  reminiscence.  The  metalUc  towers  of 
Manhattan,  that  so  painstakingly  pretend  to  be  eternal 
stone,  dart  forth  a  suggestion  of  transitoriness.  And  that 
suggestion  is  the  truth.  Already,  with  the  paint  scarce 
set,  they  are  beginning  to  come  down;  to  make  way  for 
new  and  higher  ones  that  shall  outpoint  each  its  neighbor 
—  a  forest  of  individuahsms.  New  York  is  a  platoon  of 
bayonets;  stiletto  architecture,  daggers  that  stab  the 
sky 


276  THE  FREE  CITY 

An  ego  age  cannot  produce  architecture.  Therefore 
it  cannot  produce  art  of  any  kind.  Architecture  is  the 
commune  of  the  arts,  synthesis  of  the  crafts.  In  com- 
parison with  the  structures  reared  by  an  age  Uke  the 
Gothic,  a  city  under  modern  materiaUsm  is  a  lath-and- 
plaster  thing;  not  a  city  but  the  sketch  of  a  city.  As 
though  builders,  setting  out  to  construct  a  cathedral, 
had  erected  an  elaborate  scaffolding,  and  then  had  for- 
gotten to  build  the  cathedral.  Nationalists  are  migra- 
tory; they  cannot  abide  frontiers  that  shall  hem  them  in 
and  that  shall  discipline  the  nomadism  in  their  blood. 
And  our  manner  of  building  shows  it.  The  city  common- 
wealth is  patterned  on  another  principle.  It  is  a  ded- 
icated company  of  people  owning  a  spot  of  earth  in 
common,  and  there  uprearing  their  everlasting  habita- 
tion. A  Free  City  gives  the  impression  of  being  a  fixture. 
The  attribute  of  all  architecture  is  durabihty;  a  struc- 
ture based  on  everlasting  foundations,  and  built  to  sur- 
vive the  ravage  of  the  years. 

Moderns  scratch  their  heads  over  the  "mystery  of 
style."  Style  is  spaciousness  of  treatment,  an  eleva- 
tion of  manner  bestowed  by  occult  connections  with  the 
past  and  the  future.  Style  is  the  trade  mark  of  Im- 
mortals. It  stamps  that  which  is  worked  to  an  ever- 
lastingness  of  purpose.  A  Free  City  forms  a  part  of  the 
landscape.  From  old  Nature  its  patterns  are  drawn, 
and  the  pulse  of  the  workmen  beat  to  a  vision  beyond 
their  children's  children.  The  workmanship  of  a  soul 
thus  ennobled  has  style.  His  daily  product  is  his  anti- 
dote against  oblivion.  So  his  spirit  takes  on  an  astro- 
nomic duration.  His  hands  build  an  imperishability. 
To  do  without  eternity  means  instanter  a  loss  of  tone. 

For  grandem*,  the  heart  in  us  forever  and  ever  is  yearn- 
ing.   Grandeur  is  the  spirit  of  municipahty,   as  con- 


THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE      277 

trasted  with  the  flightiness  and  paltriness  of  an  ego  epoch. 
The  days  of  our  Hfe  are  threescore  years  and  ten.  But 
thou,  0  Soul  of  the  civic  fellowship,  abideth  forever.  A 
thousand  years  in  thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday  when  it 
is  past.  Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or 
ever  thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the  world,  even 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  thou  art  God.  They 
who  are  caught  up  into  that  Self  exhibit  the  grand  man- 
ner. Their  voices  become  the  organ  of  that  greater 
Voice,  so  that  their  intonations  acquire  a  timbre  and  res- 
onance of  majesty.  No  longer  ephemera  upflashing 
fitfully  into  life,  to  be  as  fitfully  destroyed,  city-worship- 
ers are  touched  imto  a  temper  of  timelessness.  In  the 
Ancient  of  Days  their  roots  are  sunk,  and  unto  ages  of 
ages  their  line  goes  forth.  This  feeUng  of  transcendency 
over  the  fugitive  To-day,  gets  into  the  marrow  of  the 
man.  Such  a  one  irradiates  serenity,  alongside  of  which 
the  fret  and  pantings  of  temporal  folk  suggest  the  incon- 
sequential busyness  of  a  cage  of  monkeys. 

The  Romans  were  characterized  by  "the  grand  manner." 
The  fact  has  been  accepted  without  inquiry;  as  though 
the  climate  of  Rome,  or  minerals  in  their  drinking  water, 
wrought  the  inhabitants  necessarily  unto  a  certain  large- 
ness of  demeanor  to  which  other  folk  could  not  be 
expected  to  aspire.  Roman  grandeur  was  due  to 
their  civic  mysticism.  Patria  —  the  Fathers  —  that  was 
Rome's  secret  of  greatness.  In  the  continuity  of  life 
across  the  centuries,  the  mind  of  the  Roman  bathed  it- 
self as  in  a  mystic  flood.  The  ego  atomies,  losing  them- 
selves in  this  greater  Mass,  felt  within  them  the  power 
of  an  endless  life.  It  got  into  their  manner  of  speech, 
into  the  glance  of  the  eye,  the  bearing  of  the  torso,  the 
steppings  of  their  feet.  We  have  a  word  that  derives 
from  this  ennoblement  imparted  by  the  civic  rehgion: 


278  THE  FREE  CITY 

"stateliness."  Her  men  were  stately;  a  consciousness  of 
the  State  informed  all  of  their  thinkings  and  doings. 

Rome  as  a  city  repubUc  was  permitted  to  strain  all  the 
nerves  of  all  her  people.  Roman  soldiers  campaigned 
cheerfully  and  died  unrepiningly:  dulce  et  decorum 
EST,  PRO  PATRiA  MORI.  Cicero  promised  heaven  to  all  true 
patriots.  The  corona  civica  was  naught  but  a  garland 
of  oak  leaves.  But  a  Roman  coveted  it  beyond  thou- 
sands of  gold  and  silver.  For  was  it  not  the  pass-key 
unto  everlasting  life?  Offspring  of  a  great  city,  they  felt 
themselves  born  to  greatness.  Even  when  their  message 
to  the  world  had  degenerated  into  naked  power,  Roman 
magistrates  dehvered  the  message  with  grandiloquence. 
It  contributed  no  little  to  the  Empire's  longevity.  The 
statehness  of  praetors  and  proconsuls  at  least  gilded  the 
chains  wherewith  the  peoples  were  fettered. 

Rome  did  not  let  her  dead  die.  "Pious  ^neas"  was 
Virgil's  favorite  term  for  that  reputed  patriarch  of  their 
city;  "pious"  meaning,  one  who  is  reverential  towards 
his  father.  In  her  porous  tufa  rock,  Rome  quarried 
catacombs;  crypts  and  tortuous  galleries,  mile  upon  mile. 
That  the  presence  of  the  necropohs  might  be  the  more  in- 
sistent, she  located  the  catacombs  along  the  consular 
roads  radiating  from  Rome;  with  tombs,  hke  those  on  the 
Appian  Way.  In  the  Virgin  Temple  the  sacred  fire  tended 
by  the  Vestals  symbolized  this  continuity  of  the  genera- 
tions; as  fire  communicates  from  one  fagot  to  another  its 
living  flame,  roma  diva  was  the  Fire-Soul  enkindUng 
the  generations.  They  felt  that  in  some  mysterious  way 
the  destiny  of  their  city  hung  upon  the  preservation  of 
this  flame  inherited  from  the  past.  That  fire  must  never 
be  permitted  to  go  out  —  continuity  with  the  past,  was 
with  them  a  reUgious  mandate.  ReUgion  is  re-ligeo, 
"that  which  binds  back."    Veneration  of  the  Fathers  was 


THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE      279 

the  firmament  of  Rome's  statecraft  and  worship.  For 
with  the  ancients  is  wisdom,  and  in  length  of  days  is 
understanding. 

Which  dogma  had  a  repercussion  in  the  realm  of  eu- 
genics. The  child  who  reveres  his  father  will  seek  in 
turn  to  be  revered  by  his  children.  City-worship  has 
three  ingredients:  Nature-worship,  ancestor  worship,  and 
eugenics.  Combine  the  triad  in  a  civic  ritual  intoned  by 
the  multitude,  —  a  thousand  voiced  exultation  in  the 
hour  of  triumph,  in  depression  a  litany  of  a  m5a-iad  wail- 
ings  —  and  you  have  that  which  is  the  writer  of  bibles, 
law-giver,  spring  of  beauty,  strengthener  of  all  our  mortal 
doings.  In  a  land  where  graves  go  unremembered, 
cradles  are  untended.  MunicipaUty  is  the  communion 
of  Yesterday  with  Tomorrow,  through  the  medium  of  a 
joyful  and  magnificent  To-day. 

"Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day."  A  truer  phrasing 
would  be,  Rome  was  not  built  for  a  day.  They  felt  that 
the  past,  the  present  and  the  yet  unborn  constitute  a 
unity.  The  grandeur  of  that  vision  organized  itself  into 
the  work  of  their  hands.  They  built  as  Nature  built. 
They  implicated  themselves  with  the  cosmos.  In  Rome 
there  is  an  arched  sewer  still  in  use,  that  was  constructed 
in  King  Tarquin's  day,  nearly  three  thousand  years  ago. 
The  Romans  built  religiously.  Therefore  they  built 
architecturally.  Religion  has  always  been  the  patron 
of  architecture.  "Whatsoever  .  is  built  irreligiously  is 
built  shabbily,  faddishly,  flimsily. 

Almost  to  an  equal  extent  with  the  Romans,  the  Greeks 
had  this  feeling  for  and  intimacy  with  the  past.  Their 
custom  was  to  place  the  family  tomb  not  far  from  the 
door  of  the  house;  "in  order,"  as  Euripides  explained, 
"that  the  sons  in  entering  and  leaving  their  dwelling 
might  always  meet  their  fathers  and  might  address  them 


280  THE  FREE  CITY 

an  invocation."  "Sacred  Fatherland"  was  the  Athenian' 
phrase  for  their  country.  Their  term  for  the  act  of  honor- 
ing the  dead  was  "to  patriotize."  The  Fathers  had  left 
behind  them,  hymns  and  festivals  and  laws  and  Nature- 
lore.  The  living  regarded  this  mass  of  civic  tradition  as 
their  patrimony.  "These  stories  are  life-giving  mys- 
teries," said  iEschylus.  Athens  had  her  pyreteneura, 
where  the  sacred  fire  always  burned.  It  was  their  civic 
altar.  Around  that  municipal  hearthstone  their  souls 
gathered,  and  were  comforted. 

There  is  a  phrase  common  in  the  Bible:  "The  Lord 
of  hosts."  Scriptural  scholars  are  puzzled  to  interpret 
it.  If  we  wiU  remember  that  the  Bible  is  the  textbook 
of  civic  religion,  the  words  become  clear.  "The  hosts" 
were  the  invisible  multitude  that  the  Athenians  saw  in 
that  mystic  processional  to  Eleusis:  the  entire  company 
of  the  departed;  rallying  around  their  Lord  as  a  troop 
around  their  chieftain.  "Buried  with  his  fathers" — that 
is  the  civic  immortahty.  Israel  "called  his  son  Joseph 
and  said  unto  him:  'Bury  me  not  in  Egypt;  but  I  will 
He  with  my  fathers.  Carry  me,  and  bury  me  in  their 
burying  place.' "  In  that  devotion  to  patria,  is  the  lineal 
continuity  that  cUmbs  unto  civihzation's  immortal  flower- 
ing. It  transforms  the  commune  into  a  granary  where 
the  treasures  of  yesterday  are  garnered;  a  nest,  where 
young  tomorrow  is  nourished.  Like  buried  cities,  tier 
upon  tier  uprising,  their  life  was  steeped  in  an  immemo- 
rial tradition.  By  the  civic  communion,  their  days  were 
overhung  with  a  cloud  of  witnesses;  the  quick  and  the 
dead  in  statesmanly  consultation.  A  sense  of  history  is 
the  surest  mark  of  culture.  City-worshipers  are  swayed 
into  reverence  and  discipleship.  They  behold  the  solemn 
dynasties,  link  upon  hnk  conjoining;  are  themselves  a 
link  therein.    It  begets  in  the  ganglia  an  instinct  of  his- 


THE  LAND  OF  EVERLASTING  LIFE      281 

toricity.  That  is  why  those  Bible  worthies  were  so  as- 
sured and  spacious  in  their  behavior.  Partnership  with 
the  past  and  the  future  made  them  more  than  hfe  size. 
In  their  high  blood's  majesty  they  spoke  and  wrote  and 
acted  with  nobihty  of  expression. 

The  citizenly  soul  shall  abide  forever.  Jesus  abolished 
death  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,  because  he 
was  the  civic  Christ,  municipality's  evangel  and  messiah. 
He  taught:  To  live  and  to  die  for  The  Commonwealth  is 
everlasting  life.  The  commune  alone  is  invested  with 
immortal  duration;  to  the  extent  that  our  httle  self  is 
coextensive  with  that  larger  Self,  we  partake  of  that 
durabiUty.  A  Free  City  is  built  into  the  constitution  of 
the  imiverse.  It  has  an  absolute  existence;  is  con- 
tinuous with  the  unique  immense  Being  at  the  core  of 
the  cosmos;  of  Whom  a  commune  is  the  incarnation,  and 
Whose  indefatigable  urge  is  the  fire  that  makes  for  free- 
dom. The  perishing  of  self-love  in  civic  dedication  is 
the  death  that  destroys  death.  For  in  that  moment  one 
shares  the  immensity  and  duration  of  The  Eternal.  He 
becomes  naturahzed  in  the  City  of  God,  to  pass  down 
immortal  corridors;  central  to  all  fields  of  time  and  space; 
no  longer  an  alien  from  the  Commonwealth  but  a  citizen, 
through  roUing  ages  without  end.  "Their  soul  bound  in 
the  bundle  of  life,"  describes  a  folk  immune  to  coffins 
and  graveyards  and  all  the  grim  corruptibiUties.  civitas 
DEI  I  MunicipaUty  is  fellowship.  And  the  years  of  fel- 
lowship are  throughout  all  generations;  a  faith  sure  and 
steadfast.  Acolytes  of  that  religion  shall  never  taste  of 
death.  Inhabiters  are  they  of  a  city  which  hath  founda- 
tions, whose  buUder  and  maker  is  God. 


CHAPTER   XX 

A   COSMIC  COURTSHIP 

COMMON  speech  personifies  a  city  as  a  "She." 
There  is  a  valid  reason.  The  Free  City  is  the 
natural  form  of  state  —  Natural  in  the  Hteral 
sense  of  the  word.  Nature  is  a  woman.  We  call  her 
The  Great  Mother,  on  whose  hberal  bosom  we  are  borne, 
and  without  whose  nourishing  milk  our  Uves  were  not 
worth  a  fortnight's  purchase.  The  primal  and  all-condi- 
tioning attribute  of  a  city  commonwealth,  we  have  seen, 
is  kinship  with  the  terrain  of  Nature  it  rests  upon. 

Not  only  is  Nature  a  woman.  Also,  woman  is  Nature. 
Woman  is  closer  to  that  source  and  groundtackle  of  all 
being,  than  is  man.  Man  has  cUmbed  to  an  intellectual- 
ity beyond  what  woman  has  attained  to.  But  that  gain 
has  been  at  the  expense  of  his  holdfast  in  the  aboriginal 
roots  of  life,  the  cosmic  deeps  where  all  our  being  is  re- 
plenished. Man  thinks,  but  woman  knows.  Her  in- 
stincts are  ofttimes  surer  than  his  labored  logic.  Man 
thinks;  woman  feels.  In  him,  thought  takes  the  place 
of  heart-power.  In  her,  the  heart  has  grown  rich  at  the 
expense  of  the  head.  I  am  not  saying  that  either  is 
superior.  Man  and  woman  are  different;  always  have 
been,  always  will  be.  Man  is  man,  woman  is  woman; 
never  the  twain  shall  meet.  Aye,  the  diversity  will  be- 
come  greater.    Because   evolution   is   a   progress   from 

sameness  into  an  ever  more  rich  and  abundant  diversity. 

282 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  283 

Woman  is  closer  to  Nature  than  is  man,  because  of  her 
maternal  function.  Each  individual,  as  we  have  seen, 
sums  up  in  his  career  the  biography  of  the  universe.  A 
child  at  the  moment  of  birth  is  a  vegetable;  a  lovely  sun- 
flower waving  his  arms  and  legs  Uke  petals  of  a  blossom, 
at  the  end  of  the  stem  that  fastens  him  to  his  earth.  Cut 
loose  from  that  stem,  delivered  from  a  merely  passive 
botanical  existence,  he  becomes  successively  a  frog,  a 
monkey,  a  cave  man;  and  at  about  the  age  of  three  he 
graduates  into  the  savage  and  barbarian  stages  in  the 
world's  history.  A  child  of  five  is  an  excellent  specimen, 
in  point  of  emotional  development,  of  a  pagan  —  that 
world  peopled  with  fauns  and  sprites,  imps  and  naiads 
and  dryads,  sylvans  and  satyrs;  which,  could  he  retain 
and  add  thereto  the  disciplined  mind  of  maturity,  would 
make  him  a  genius,  of  the  school  of  iEschylus  and 
Sophocles. 

The  mother  stays  with  the  lad  through  all  that  child- 
hood cHmb.  In  her  arms,  almost,  she  takes  him  up  to 
the  age  of  eight  or  ten.  By  which  time  of  his  graduation 
from  her  care,  another  child  has  usually  appeared. 
Whereupon  she  goes  back  and  repeats  the  process.  Be- 
cause of  this,  her  soul  has  remained  in  those  primitive 
bournes,  while  man's  soul  has  gone  on  into  intellectualism. 
Man  has  advanced  further,  but  on  a  narrow  front. 
Woman  has  not  advanced  so  far,  but  she  has  taken  all 
Nature  up  with  her  as  far  as  she  has  gone.  Man  is  the 
scout  of  the  army,  pushing  ahead  with  a  small  force  to 
reconnoiter.  Woman  has  come  behind  leading  the  main 
army,  whose  mightier  mass  has  necessitated  a  slower 
pace.  She  brings  with  her  not  only  the  children  of  the 
human  species.  She  comes,  leading  also  in  her  many- 
sided  soul  the  flowers,  birds  in  spring,  laughter  of  water- 
falls, protean  cloud-shapes,  pomp  of  sunsets,  and  thunder- 


284  THE  FREE  CITY 

storms  driving  down  the  valley.  Woman  is  Natm-e  in 
human  form.  The  tides  of  her  being  are  cognate  to  the 
rhythm  of  the  moon.  Man  is  mental.  Woman  is  ele- 
mental. Her  spirit  is  attuned  to  notes  of  music  where 
man's  ear  is  not  at  home. 

Watch  a  mother  when  she  has  an  idle  moment  and  is 
playing  with  her  infant  child.  The  lad  beheves  in  fames; 
so  does  the  mother.  And  they  walk  in  a  wonder-world 
together.  Every  true  woman  is  at  heart  a  pagan;  that 
is  to  say,  her  attitude  toward  Nature  is  the  child  attitude. 
She  puts  faith  in  signs  and  tokens;  consults  the  fortune 
teller,  as  Saul  of  old  time  consulted  the  gypsy  at  Endor. 
She  is  closer  than  man  to  the  fairylands  of  hfe.  Superficial 
moderns  hold  in  derision  this  "superstitiousness"  of 
womankind.  But  without  that  heart  of  natural  behef, 
she  could  not  be  a  companion  to  her  child.  Who  then 
would  keep  company  with  these  newcomers  and  guide 
them  sympathetically  up  through  childhood's  cosmic 
climb  to  adult  estate?  Woman  is  the  Unk  between  men 
and  children.  Man  cannot  understand  an  infant.  The 
infant  cannot  understand  a  man.  Woman  understands 
them  both;  and  interprets  them  each  to  the  other.  To 
demand  of  woman  the  cold  rationality  of  man,  would  be 
asking  her  to  give  up  her  vocation  in  the  scheme  of  things. 
Man  for  mentahty,  woman  for  sensibihty  —  there  is  the 
team  that  pulls  the  wide  world  forward. 

As  woman  is  the  connecting  link  between  childhood 
and  adulthood,  municipality  is  the  hnk  between  Nature 
and  human  nature.  A  city  has  an  earthly  base,  and 
climbs  —  if  it  be  a  Free  City  —  into  loftiest  altitudes; 
the  Tree  Igdrasil,  earth-grounded,  but  whose  top  is  close 
against  the  sky.  What  form  of  statehood  was  it  trans- 
formed a  mud  stream  into  the  River  Jordan,  theme  of 
song  wheresoever  civihzation  has  spread  its  fire?    What 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  285 

form  of  statehood  took  some  hillocks,  bleak  and  bare  m" 
the  Italian  campagna,  and  transfigured  them  into  seven- 
hilled  Rome,  clothed  in  majesty?  What  form  of  state- 
hood took  Attica's  thin  and  dusty  soil,  and  transformed 
it  into  purple-crowned  Athens?  Or  the  valley  of  that 
back-country  stream,  the  Arno,  and  glorified  it  into  a 
Florence?  Or  the  dull  Baltic  coast,  and  turned  it  into 
Hanseatic  towns?  Enumerate  the  spots  where  the  un- 
conscious landscape  has  been  educated  into  towers  of 
strength  and  temples  of  renown,  you  have  enumerated 
the  municipal  republics  of  history.  It  is  not  a  dreamer's 
dream  but  sound  and  authentic  truth:  The  Free  City 
is  the  link  of  connection,  by  means  of  which  insensate 
Nature  climbs  up  into  and  becomes  vivacious  human 
nature. 

To  speak  therefore  of  a  municipality  as  possessing  fem- 
inine gender,  is  to  speak  the  truth.  All  of  the  qualities 
that  characterize  womanhood,  characterize  municipal 
commonwealths.  Athens  was  named  from  her  goddess 
Athena.  Florence,  in  her  florid  valley,  gives  her  name  to 
an  innumerable  company  of  girls.  When  the  Romans 
personified  their  city,  it  was  always  in  the  feminine 
gender,  roma.  There  are  controversialists  who  ask.  If 
woman  is  man's  equal,  why  are  all  of  the  great  artists 
men?  The  answer  is,  Man  produces  art,  but  woman 
produces  the  artist.  Her  modeling  is  not  in  clay  or 
wood  or  marble;  but  in  living  flesh,  the  body  of  the  child 
she  is  conducting  up  to  manhood.  In  like  manner,  the 
municipality  does  not  produce  art;  but  she  produces 
artists  who,  in  gratitude  to  their  alma  mater,  bring  the 
dear-wrought  produce  of  their  hands  to  garnish  her. 
Within  the  seclusion  of  her  sovereignty  she  sits,  a  wife 
incommunicado,  a  mother  cherishing  her  children.  She 
is  home-etajdng;    but  her  silent  ministrations  are  the 


286  THE  FREE  CITY 

replenishment  of  her  children,  whose  names  resound  afar. 
She  looketh  well  to  the  ways  of  her  household,  and  eateth 
not  the  bread  of  idleness.  Her  children  arise  up  and  call 
her  blessed. 

The  Free  City,  girt  with  dignities  and  civil  dominion, 
is  the  only  form  of  society  under  which  woman  has  found 
contentment.  In  non-municipal  eras,  man  can  struggle 
along,  can  keep  a  measure  of  health;  but  woman  in  such 
an  era  goes  to  pieces.  Our  times  afford  illustration. 
This  denatured  civihzation  is  hard  on  man;  but  it  is  prov- 
ing fatal  to  woman.  The  pestilence  of  artificiaUty  j&nds 
in  man  a  something  of  resisting  power.  But  the  plague 
sweeps  womanhood  with  frightful  fatality.  Woman  is 
made  for  Nature,  and  can  find  no  rest  until  she  rests  in 
Nature.  Whelm  her  away  from  that  soil,  she  is  a  rose 
torn  up  by  the  roots.  Woman  is  the  political  barometer. 
When  her  spirit  is  in  a  posture  of  contentment,  it  is  sign 
that  the  State  is  nearly  of  the  Natural  type.  But  when 
neurasthenias  begin  to  visit  her,  and  portents  of  spiritual 
collapse,  it  signifies  that  the  poUtical  establishment  is 
imsound. 

The  grandeur  of  Rome,  as  to  the  men  she  produced, 
had  its  counterpart  in  the  queenliness  of  her  women. 
Cornelia  sending  her  sons  to  die  for  the  State  in  a  struggle 
for  popular  rights,  was  only  a  more  conspicuous  instance 
of  the  average  Roman  matron;  like  the  Spartan  mother, 
cheering  her  boy  to  a  career  of  courage  and  admonishing 
that  he  keep  his  shield  unsurrendered:  "Come  back  with 
it,  or  on  it."  Pilate,  presiding  over  the  trial  of  Jesus, 
accounted  the  prisoner  as  but  one  more  in  the  daily  ad- 
ministrative grind.  Nevertheless  he  put  into  that  court 
scene  a  dignity  and  elevation  that  matched,  on  the  side 
of  the  magistracy,  the  loftiness  contributed  by  the  bear- 
ing of  the  prisoner.    Imagine  the  judge  in  a  modern 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  287 

court  departing  from  the  routine  to  ask  an  ill-kempt 
prisoner  at  the  bar,  "What  is  truth."  And  the  hand- 
washing! Is  there  to-day  one  judge  in  ten  thousand  with 
the  originality  to  conceive  a  deed  like  that,  or  the  poetic 
daring  to  interrupt  court  procedure  for  so  dramatic  a 
symboHsm?  The  harsh  necessities  of  empire  compelled 
Pilate,  in  condemning  Jesus,  to  do  a  dastardly  piece  of 
work.  But  he  did  it  with  style.  Jesus  was  unjustly 
dealt  with.  But  he  was  not  sordidly  dealt  with.  Pilate's 
demeanor  dignified  the  event  up  out  of  the  level  of  brutal- 
ity onto  the  level  of  tragedy.  And  we  glimpse  the  hidden 
spring  that  was  moving  him.  In  the  background  — 
Pilate's  wife.  We  behold  her,  interesting  herself  per- 
sonally in  affairs  of  state;  with  a  sagacity  that  kings 
and  counsellors  could  envy.  And  she  was  an  ordinary 
Roman  wife. 

More  exclusively  than  perhaps  any  other  spot  upon 
earth,  the  AcropoHs  was  devoted  to  the  adoration  of 
womanhood.  Almost  excessive  was  the  Athenian  defer- 
ence to  women.  Aristotle  questions  the  wisdom  of 
"Feminine  ascendency,"  and  the  "over-indulgence  of 
women."  Plato  voices  the  same  fear.  Decidedly  there 
was  no  Woman  Movement  in  the  Attic  Commune.  A 
movement  for  Man's  Rights  would  have  been  more  logi- 
cal. And  yet  Athens  was  not  effeminized.  Her  sons 
were  trained  for  citizenship  rather  than  for  miUtarism. 
But  in  withstanding  an  invader,  the  men  of  Athens  were 
famed  for  pig-headed  fighting.  "By  thee  I  have  run 
through  a  troop,  and  by  my  God  I  have  leaped  over  a 
wall,"  exclaimed  a  citizen  in  the  neighboring  commime  of 
Israel.  Attic  manhood  ground  to  powder  the  myrmidons 
of  Xerxes;  and  then,  to  their  goddess  queen  Athena, 
built  the  most  beautiful  structure  in  the  world. 

We  moderns,  to  whom  a  city  is  naught  but  a  place  to 


288  THE  FREE  CITY 

make  money  in,  can  scarce  imagine  the  affection  felt  by 
citizens  toward  their  Conmiune.  Patriotism  is  too  feeble 
a  term  for  it.  It  was  a  love  attachment;  so  adorable 
was  the  tie  betwixt  the  Mistress-Mother  and  her  offspring. 
They  were  creatures  of  a  day;  but  she  endured  in  ever- 
lasting succession;  had  borne  their  fathers  in  the  foretime, 
and  would  bear  their  children  when  they  themselves  had 
been  gathered  to  the  kingdoms  of  the  dead.  In  the  hazy 
light  of  morning  they  saw  her  as  a  Lady  enthroned,  a 
fostering  protective  Mother. 

Take  the  instincts  throbbing  in  a  chUd  of  Nature;  to 
that  add  the  venerations  that  thrill  in  us  when  we  re- 
member our  dead;  add  further  the  fellowship  of  a  com- 
mon hazard  and  a  sense  of  stewardship  for  our  children's 
children  —  this  was  the  massive  emotion  their  city  re- 
pubUc  evoked.  It  was  naught  less  than  a  love  rapture. 
To  her  their  hves  were  amorously  engaged.  In  her  be- 
half, self-immolation  was  joyful.  No  ego  was  permitted 
to  be  self-important.  They  laid  themselves  at  her  feet 
as  a  lover  brings  love  gifts  to  the  lode-star  of  his  affections. 
To  make  an  oblation  to  her  was  gratification  beyond  all 
other  delights.  It  ennobled  their  handiwork.  Her 
people  aspired  with  all  their  organs  to  produce  something 
preciously  wrought;  worthy  to  be  a  brooch  for  her  neck 
or  a  jewel  to  be  set  in  her  diadem. 

"O  Mother  dear,  Jerusalem!"  —  there  we  see  the  emo- 
tion that  immortalized  Palestine.  The  Bible  is  quite  the 
most  voluptuous  romance  in  hterature.  It  is  the  love 
story  of  God's  amour  with  Jerusalem.  God  is  the  Fel- 
lowship that  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth;  and  who, 
in  his  Palestinian  self-manifestation,  took  the  name 
Jehovah.  This  God  fell  in  love  with  Jerusalem.  "Fear 
not;  for  thou  shalt  not  be  put  to  shame.  For  thy  Maker 
is  thine  husband;  the  Lord  of  Hosts  is  his  name."    It  was 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  289 

a  romantic  love;  the  match  was  forbidden  by  jealous  and 
mighty  empires  round  about,  who  claimed  this  Jerusalem 
virgin  as  their  concubine.  The  determination  of  the  high 
and  holy  One  to  have  her  exclusively  for  Himself  —  His 
yearnings  after  her,  and  her  yearnings  after  Him  —  is  the 
golden  thread  that  runs  through  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New.  Ezekiel  describes  the  betrothal:  "Word 
of  the  Lord :  When  I  passed  by  thee  and  looked  upon  thee, 
behold  thy  time  was  the  time  of  love.  And  I  spread  my 
skirt  over  thee,  and  entered  into  a  covenant  with  thee; 
and  thou  becamest  mine.  I  anointed  thee  with  oil.  I 
clothed  thee  also  with  broidered  work,  and  I  gilded  thee 
with  fine  linen.  I  decked  thee  also  with  ornaments. 
Thou  wast  exceeding  beautiful."  The  fundamental 
teaching  of  the  Bible  —  more  constantly  insisted  upon 
than  any  other  to  be  found  within  its  pages  —  is  that  a 
Free  City  stands  breast-high  to  God,  lovely  in  her  win- 
someness;  and  He  is  so  warm-blooded  He  can  never  re- 
sist the  attraction. 

When  a  jilted  suitor  like  Chaldea  comes  and  kidnaps 
this  lovely  maiden  out  of  the  arms  of  her  celestial  Lover, 
it  is  regarded  as  an  enforced  widowhood.  At  such  a 
time  the  prophets  rose  up  to  assure  the  people  that  the 
conjugal  tie  would  be  renewed.  "Thou  shalt  not  re- 
member the  reproach  of  thy  widowhood  any  more." 
The  "Song  of  Songs"  has  puzzled  commentators;  there  is 
in  its  language  a  fleshliness  and  naturaUsm  that  seem  to 
many  to  be  out  of  place  in  a  sacred  volume  hke  the  Bible 
Those  Canticles  are  a  series  of  love-letters  written  by 
the  amorous  couple,  to  console  the  time  of  their  separa- 
tion. The  imperiaUstic  kidnapper  is  Ukened  to  King 
Solomon  with  his  many  wives,  and  who  seeks  now  to  buy 
the  love  of  the  Maiden  with  palaces  and  horses  and  chari- 
ots.   But  she,  "the  Shulamite  Maid,"  will  not  be  bribed. 


290  THE  FREE  CITY 

She  writes  passion-flaming  letters  to  her  heavenly  Bride- 
groom; says  that  she  prefers  poverty,  in  the  arms  of  her 
Well-beloved,  to  the  blandishments  of  an  imperialistic 
sensualist  who  seeks  but  to  add  her  to  the  number  of 
his  kept  women.  Her  Bridegroom  writes  equally  ardent 
letters  to  her  in  return;  sighs  for  the  moment  that  shall 
reunite  them  in  the  connubial  bond.  Beneath  the  sen- 
suous imagery  is  enforced  the  soundest  lesson  in  politi- 
cal science:  ImperiaUsm,  tying  many  landscapes  to  one 
capital,  is  Ukened  to  an  emperor  surrounded  by  a  multi- 
tude of  concubines;  whereas  municipal  independence  is 
the  monogamic  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman. 

God  as  the  husband,  Jerusalem  as  the  wife,  and  the 
IsraeUtes  as  their  offspring  —  that  is  the  psychology  that 
permeates  the  Bible  through  and  through.  As  in  all  true 
marriages,  the  blend  was  perfect;  a  union  of  soul,  so 
that  the  children  knew  not  which  of  the  pair  to  love  the 
more.  Sometimes  their  worship  went  out  to  the  Father, 
and  sometimes  to  the  Mother.  Forasmuch  as  by  the 
necessities  of  the  case  a  married  couple  is  represented  in 
their  relations  with  the  outside  world  by  the  husband, 
whilst  the  wife  occupies  a  more  retired  place,  thus  God- 
head made  up  of  male  and  female  was  usually  referred 
to  by  them  as  "He."  But  underneath  that  official 
"He,"  the  feminine  was  always  included.  "Rejoice  ye 
with  Jerusalem,  and  be  glad  with  her,  all  ye  that  love 
her.  That  ye  may  suck  and  be  satisfied  with  the  breasts 
of  her  consolations;  that  ye  may  milk  out  and  be  dehghted 
with  the  abundance  of  her  glory.  Ye  shall  be  borne 
upon  her  sides  and  be  dandled  upon  her  knees;  as  one 
whom  his  mother  comforteth." 

No  small  part  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  to  get  the 
people  ready  for  the  "Marriage  Supper,"  when  the 
heavenly  Father  and  the  Jerusalem  Mother  would    be 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  291 

reunited  in  wedlock  joy.  A  poet  in  his  mastery  over  the 
resources  of  language,  he  drew  lavishly  upon  those  re- 
sources to  picture  the  gladness  and  the  glories  of  that 
wedding  feast.  The  unfaithful  IsraeUte  will  be  excluded 
from  that  event.  The  faithful  will  be  bidden,  and  it  will 
be  their  everlasting  reward;  for  they  will  thereafter  live 
imder  the  tender  care  of  a  Father  and  a  Mother.  So 
importantly  did  this  nuptial  event  occupy  the  imagina- 
tion of  Jesus,  it  got  into  the  Patmos  vision.  The  climax 
of  that  revelation  announces:  "I  John  saw  the  holy  city, 
new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven, 
prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband."  St. 
Augustine,  who  as  a  young  man  had  been  a  loose  Uver, 
was  attracted  by  this  picture  of  spiritualized  love.  He 
gave  up  his  hbertinisms;  became  ardently  attached  to 
this  picture  of  a  heavenly  Bride;  and  wrote  "The  City 
of  God,"  his  masterpiece. 

Not  strange  that  a  State  thus  highestly  feminized  — 
"daughter  of  Zion"  —  should  have  produced  an  array 
of  great  women.  Rebecca  and  Sarah,  Ruth  and  Naomi 
and  Deborah  and  Hannah  and  Elizabeth  —  how  the  Ust 
awakens  hearthstone  memories!  and  Mary  the  Mother, 
ornament  of  the  world,  pearl  among  women;  for  whom 
no  canvas  is  white  enough,  no  pigment  sufficiently  rich, 
to  image  forth  her  charm  and  graces. 

Municipalism  is  feminism.  All  other  political  estab- 
Ushments  are  an  indecent  society  for  women  to  live  in .  The 
Dark  Ages  that  preceded  the  Gothic,  presented  a  black- 
ened gulf  of  egoisms  in  fierce  contention.  In  such  a 
time,  powerful  sinews,  a  sword  arm  trained  and  ready, 
were  the  requisites.  That  gave  to  man  the  preeminence; 
relegated  woman,  by  reason  of  her  inferiority  in  fighting 
strength,  to  a  subordinate  position.  But  in  that  black 
marauder  epoch,  woman  was  the  preserver  of  life.    In 


292  THE  FREE  CITY 

all  eras  man  has  been  inclined  to  play  the  runagate;  fish- 
ing and  hunting  and  warring  and  roaming.  Woman  is 
the  home  builder.  Her  spirit  is  eminently  of  a  construc- 
tive cast.  For  bearing  and  rearing  children  a  nest  is 
needed.  A  nest  requires  permanency  of  abode.  Legend 
says  that,  when  the  .^Eneas  band,  meandering  about  the 
Mediterranean  after  their  expulsion  from  burning  Troy, 
landed  finally  on  the  shores  of  Italy,  the  women  of 
the  party  went  down  to  the  water  by  stealth  and  set 
fire  to  the  ships,  in  order  that  the  nomadism  might  come 
at  last  to  a  perpetual  end.  Thus  restrained  from  further 
rovings,  the  band  of  wanderers  settled  down  in  Italy; 
and  Rome  was  eventually  the  result. 

The  Gothic  period  saw  woman  restored  to  honor  and 
reverence;  because  in  the  settled  mode  of  life  known  as 
Free  Cities,  her  qualities  began  once  more  to  be  ap- 
preciated. The  five  hundred  Dark  Years  had  inured  man 
to  warfarings,  made  him  adept  in  the  arts  that  destroy; 
had  incapacitated  him  for  the  business  of  construction. 
Bulf  not  so,  woman.  Whilst  the  husband  had  been  swag- 
gering through  the  countryside  in  the  train  of  some  feudal 
chieftain,  the  wife  had  stayed  at  home,  tending  the  farm, 
nourishing  the  household,  weaving  the  cloth,  sewing  the 
garments  —  was  butcher  and  baker  and  candlestick 
maker.  In  the  lowUer  classes  she  was  the  plow  driver, 
the  goose  girl,  dairy  maid,  shepherd,  and  herder.  In  the 
castle  enclosure,  high  bom  dames  worked  the  spinning 
wheel  and  loom;  were  the  practitioners  in  medicine,  and 
even  in  surgery.  So  when  the  communes  finally  arose, 
with  their  demand  for  a  productive  type  of  life,  woman 
came  into  her  own. 

In  that  signal  burst  of  beauty,  we  find  Joan  of  Are, 
Marguerite  of  Navarre,  St.  Catherine,  St.  Theresa,  Isa- 
bella of  Castile,  Mary  of  Scotland.    The  universities  of 


A  COSMIC  COURTSfflP  293 

Salerno  and  Bologna  had  women  professors.  It  is  to 
this  period  we  owe  the  Arthur  Legends,  wherein  knights 
errant  went  forth  in  the  name  of  womanhood  to  do  courtly 
deeds.  Now  were  the  Troubadours.  Sings  one  of  them: 
"I  know  of  no  more  subtle  passion  under  heaven  than  is 
the  maiden  passion  for  a  maid;  not  only  to  keep  down  the 
base  in  man,  but  to  teach  high  thoughts  and  amiable 
words  and  courtliness  and  the  desire  of  fame  and  zest 
of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a  man."  Affirms  Vogelweide 
the  Minnesinger:  "He  who  has  a  good  woman's  love  is 
ashamed  of  every  evil  deed." 

Wellnigh  a  third  of  the  pictures  of  that  era  are  Madon- 
nas. The  cathedrals  were  built  mostly  to  "Our  Lady." 
In  any  city  of  France,  ask  the  way  to  "The  Cathedral  of 
Notre  Dame,"  and  you  will  usually  have  hit  upon  the 
name  of  the  Gothic  structure  in  that  town.  Florentines 
dedicated  their  duomo  to  "Mary  of  the  Flower."  She 
was  the  inspiration  of  the  art  work  of  the  period.  This 
reverence  paid  to  womanhood  overpowered  man's  native 
roughness,  subdued  his  handiwork  to  delicacy  of  touch 
and  to  an  instinctive  taste;  a  rapture  of  devotion  that 
blazoned  forth  in  glasswork  of  rich  colors,  carpentry, 
stone  carvings,  metal  work,  tapestry,  paintings. 

The  instances  of  Abelard  and  Heloise,  Dante  and 
Beatrice,  Petrarch  and  Laura,  are  eloquent  of  the  power  of 
woman  in  that  era  to  cast  a  spell  over  minds  of  the  first 
magnitude.  In  the  "Mystery  of  Adam,"  a  twelfth 
century  play,  the  dialogue  explains  why  Satan,  in  the 
apple-eating  affair,  chose  Eve  instead  of  Adam  as  the 
object  of  his  personal  attentions:  "(Devil):  Adam  I've 
seen;  but  he's  a  dull  thing.  (Eve):  He  is  a  little  obsti- 
nate. (Devil):  But  he'll  be  soft  enough  soon.  At 
present  he's  rougher  than  hell.  (Eve) :  He  is  very  naive. 
(Devil):    Say,  very  low.    He  isn't  worth  helping.     To 


294  THE  FREE  CITY 

help  you  shall  be  my  care.  For  you  are  tender.  The 
rose  is  not  so  fresh  as  you.  A  sorry  mixture  God  hath 
brewed:  you,  too  tender,  and  he  too  boorish.  You  have 
much  the  greater  sense.    Therefore  I  turn  to  you." 

There  is  a  puzzle  among  scholars  as  to  the  identity  of 
Dante's  "Beatrice."  Some,  doubting  that  she  was  a 
flesh-and-blood  creature,  beheve  her  to  have  been  the 
poet's  symbol  for  Abstract  Reason,  or  the  Light  of  Piety. 
More  probably  she  was  in  his  mind  the  figure  that  per- 
sonified his  native  city.  Beatrice  means,  "Conducing  to 
Blessedness."  The  man  of  long  exile,  wearied  by  eating 
another's  salt  and  going  up  and  down  another's  stairs, 
would  regard  his  homeland  as  the  lost  feUcity.  He  refers 
to  this  Beatrice  as  "That  lady  of  all  gentle  manners." 
Anyone  who  has  seen  Florence-by-the-Arno,  with  im- 
agination of  what  it  must  have  been  in  that  Gothic  age, 
can  easily  think  of  her  in  terms  used  by  Dante  of  Beatrice: 
"Behold  a  deity  stronger  than  I,  who  coming  shall  rule 
over  me."  Ghibbeline  and  Guelf  —  Empire  and  the 
Papacy  —  had  begun  to  divide  the  conmaune  of  Florence. 
But  Dante,  though  the  victim  of  this  factional  strife, 
cannot  tear  the  adoration  of  her  out  of  his  heart:  "I 
have  borne  punishment  of  exile  and  poverty,  since  it  was 
the  pleasure  of  that  fairest  and  most  renowned  Florence 
to  cast  me  out  of  her  sweet  bosom  in  which  I  had  my 
birth  and  nourishment  even  to  the  ripeness  of  my  age; 
and  in  which,  with  her  good  will,  I  desire  with  all  my  heart 
to  rest  this  weary  spirit  of  mine,  and  to  terminate  the  time 
allotted  to  me  on  earth." 

In  the  Renaissance,  the  artist  of  them  all  that  most 
retained  the  spirit  of  the  preceding  Gothic  age,  was  per- 
haps Leonardo  da  Vinci.  And  his  masterwork  was  the 
portrait  of  a  woman  —  Mona  Lisa.  So  much  was  fem- 
inine grace  the  tone  and  level  of  his  thinking,  Leonardo 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  295 

could  not  imagine  even  implements  of  slaughter  except 
under  a  configuration  of  delicacy  and  tasteful  design. 
His  term  for  war  was  "the  superlative  of  brutish  frenzy" 
—  PAZzio  BESTiALissiMA.  And  yct,  in  offering  his  ser- 
vices to  the  Duke  of  Ludovico,  in  the  inventory  of  his 
accomplishments  he  said:  "I  can  construct  bombards, 
cannon,  mortars;  all  new,  and  very  beautiful," 

Only  in  an  artistic  era  does  woman  feel  at  home.  Mu- 
nicipality is  the  artistic  mode  of  civilization,  as  contrasted 
with  the  material  aims,  the  competitive  cut-throatings 
and  the  miUtaristic  orgies  under  a  national  regime.  Free 
Cities  —  civiTAS  regnans  —  gave  to  the  map  of  the  world 
in  that  Gothic  day  endless  variety  in  the  unity  of  the  same 
spirit;  facets  of  the  central  splendor,  each  sparkling  with 
an  angle  of  its  own;  and  so  transmuting  our  duU  Earth 
into  a  diamond  for  the  coronet  of  The  Eternal.  And  this 
attribute  of  artistry  came  from  the  civic  amour  that 
mingled  Uke  a  mystical  infusion  in  the  blood  of  the  men 
of  that  time.  Civitas  Dei  was  the  rehgion  and  the 
poUtics  of  the  day.  Their  genius  was  an  emanation  from 
her  luxuriance.  Those  men  were  embowered  in  a  holy 
and  sumptuous  passion.  If  you  think  of  Florence,  una 
DONNA  KARA  starts  to  the  hps;  and  of  the  other  com- 
monwealths: BELLissiMA  CREATURA.  Their  city  was 
their  inamorata.  To  her  they  addressed  an  idolatry  of 
adoration.  In  all  their  affictions,  she  was  afflicted. 
Motherlike,  she  put  the  full  breast  of  her  tenderness  to 
the  last  and  least  of  her  children.  So  affectionately  em- 
bosomed, the  citizens  responded  to  the  mesmerism. 
Workingmen  felt  no  restiveness  in  their  appointed  sta- 
tions. They  drudged  in  lowly  paths  of  imderservice,  that 
she  might  swell  in  prosperity  and  fame.  Wages?  wages 
were  but  an  honorarium.  SeK-effacement  is  easy  for 
the  dear-loved  mistress  of  one's  heart. 


296  THE  FREE  CITY 

When  the  city  sits  a  queen  enthroned,  woman  finds 
herself  and  is  at  rest.  When  society  disintegrates  into 
a  jumble  of  tiger-hearts  contending  for  gain  by  commercial 
strife  or  armed  encounter,  woman  with  her  finer  com- 
position and  delicacy  of  organization  is  the  first  to  suffer. 
The  stark  materiaUsm  known  as  modernity  is  disen- 
throning  womankind.  In  a  time  of  mihtarism  and 
barbaric  luxury,  she  feels  herself  cheapened,  depreciated. 
The  standards  that  material  and  corrupted  men  measure 
success  by,  are  not  her  standards.  In  that  arena  she  is 
a  disquahfied  competitor.  Under  nationalism,  with  its 
liberation  of  brute  force,  woman  is  touched  and  grieved 
in  every  particle  of  her  being,  CommerciaHsm  blows 
through  her  Uke  a  bitter  east  wind.  She  knows  that 
something  is  wrong.  She  is  reaching  out  for  poHtical 
power,  in  order  to  bring  the  world  back  into  a  polity 
where  fellowship  shall  replace  the  pandemonium. 

Not  in  nationalisms  and  poUticianisms  shall  these  her 
new-found  energies  function.  When  woman  comes  into 
pohtical  power,  she  is  going  to  bring  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment back  to  the  community.  Municipality  is  the  ex- 
tension of  the  household.  Industry  is  no  longer  a  home 
affair,  as  once,  but  a  community  affair;  the  baking  of  the 
bread,  weaving  of  the  cloth,  making  of  garments,  co- 
operatively. Woman's  desire  to  be  emancipated  from 
the  home  and  partake  of  a  larger  life,  is  not  an  abdica- 
tion of  her  housewifery.  Doilies  are  not  enough  to 
employ  her  forces.  The  so-called  "new  woman"  has  an 
instinct  that  the  world's  work  has  moved  from  the  home 
out  into  the  social  organization;  and  she  wishes  to  be 
where  the  creative  tasks  of  life  are  transacted.  Women's 
clubs,  municipal  leagues  —  the  Woman's  Movement 
generally  —  will  make  for  Free  Cities.  Woman  is  bred  to 
home-loyalty  as  to  a  second  nature. 


A  COSMIC  COURTSHIP  297 

In  reintroducing  the  community  state,  majestic  in 
sovereignty,  woman  will  bring  back  to  the  world  an  age 
of  art.  Not  perhaps  a  worship  of  Maiden  Mary,  to  the 
ring  of  hammers  on  cathedral  stones.  But  a  city-wor- 
ship none  the  less;  and  all  the  grander  because  woven 
out  of  our  own  day  and  doings.  The  tasks  that  feed  and 
clothe  the  world  are  now  communal  instead  of  domestic. 
In  enlarging  the  scope  of  her  motherliness  -to  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  municipality,  woman  is  going  to  rediscover 
her  vocation;  and  the  world  will  rediscover  her  loveliness. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE 

MUNICIPALITY  is  the  thunderstorm  of  history. 
Marathon,  Salamis,  Thermopylae,  Armageddon, 
Legnano,  Ghent,  Calais,  Unterwalden,  Saragossa 
—  these  have  written  the  powerful  pages  in  the  volume 
of  the  years  of  man.  The  city  repubhc  is  a  social  ap- 
paratus for  organizing  goodwill  into  the  affairs  of  our 
planet.  To  institute  lovingkindness  on  the  earth,  is  its 
vocation.  For  that  reason  it  has  declared  an  implacable 
vendetta  against  egoism  and  feudalism  and  nationalism 
and  imperialism.  Between  it  and  these,  the  conflict  is 
irrepressible.  Golgothas  line  the  path  that  leads  to 
freedom.  Fellowship  is  an  island  amid  the  rage  of  mighty 
waters.  That  island  will  never  subsist  except  it  rim  it- 
self with  a  shore  line  of  rock  and  steel,  vetoing  the  teeth 
of  a  gnashing  sea.  To  be  itself,  fellowship  must  refuse 
to  fellowship  the  foes  of  fellowship.  They  only  are  citi- 
zens, who  will  to  take  up  their  residence  in  the  storm 
country. 

The  municipal  state  is  a  commune  of  workers  surround- 
ing themselves  with  a  hedge,  to  break  the  gusts  of  ad- 
versity and  ward  off  pillagers.  That  hedge,  whose 
other  name  is  sovereignty,  is  an  affront  to  the  predatory 
ones  seeking  to  annex  that  commune.  The  citizen 
commonwealth  is  a  company  of  toilers  who  refuse  to  be 
annexed.    They  will  entrust  to  no  one  the  guardianship 

of  their  liberties.    Let  it  be  suggested  that  they  receive 

298 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE    299 

a  fate  not  of  their  own  making,  straightway  they  sharpen 
the  horns  of  rebellion.  The  Free  City!  fair  is  she,  but 
never  soft.  PanopUed  with  sovereignty  as  with  a  gar- 
ment, she  lifts  herself  in  a  form  and  posture  of  regaUty. 
For  that  reason  her  people  love  her.  It  was  Attica's 
acceptance  of  a  gambUng  chance  against  the  Empire  of  the 
E^st,  that  evoked  in  her  children  an  ecstasy  of  adoration. 

Said  Aristotle:  "PoUtical  society  exists  for  the  sake  of 
noble  actions,  and  not  of  mere  companionship."  I  know 
of  no  utterance  that  comprises  within  few  words  a  niightier 
wealth  of  meaning.  "The  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number,"  is  modernity's  idea  of  the  State.  To 
this  inglorious  and  craven  creed,  city  repubHcs  would 
make  reply:  To  be  heroic  is  more  important  than  to  be 
happy;  the  end  of  statecraft  is  not  the  greatest  happiness 
of  the  greatest  nimiber,  but  the  greatest  nobleness  of  the 
greatest  number.  Nationalism  talks  in  terms  of  full 
dinner  pails,  soft  clothing,  comfort,  balmy  days  and 
Sybaritic  nights.  The  Free  City  talks  in  terms  of  Ub- 
erty,  courage,  hardihood,  independence,  self-respect, 
municipal  romance,  spiritual  adventure.  In  late  times 
the  labor  movement  has  shown  a  proneness  for  the  flesh- 
pots  of  Egypt,  rather  than  for  the  wilderness  trek  to 
Canaan  and  freedom  and  civic  statehood.  The  perfect 
fruit  thereof  would  be  mediocrity  and  disinheritance;  a 
slough  of  sour  despond.  For  the  industrial  mass  to  slump 
into  a  loaves-and-fishes  philosophy  were  a  strangulation 
of  the  nobilities  that  make  for  immortal  handiwork. 

Since  inmiemorial  time,  the  Free  City  has  constituted 
the  parapets  of  the  people.  Big  states  make  for  money 
power.  Small  states  make  for  popular  power.  National 
government  is  the  weapon  of  the  rich;  municipal  govern- 
ment is  the  weapon  of  the  poor.  Municipality  alone  has 
been  the  custodian  of  industrial  democracy.    Within  her 


300  THE  FREE  CITY 

inviolable  arms  the  toiling  multitude  have  found  asylum. 
Cooperation  "is  the  marrow  and  the  meaning  of  the  cen- 
turies. The  Commune  is  cooperation  that  takes  itself 
seriously.  Unless  it  own  the  wedge  of  earth  it  Uves  upon, 
supreme  in  poUtical  prerogatives  and  eminent  domain,  a 
cooperative  colony  is  an  infantiUsm;  a  folk  unable  to 
peer  forth  upon  the  world  except  with  supplication  in 
their  eyes.  With  mere  suppUcators,  Heaven  will  hold 
no  converse.  Only  the  communes  that  were  invested 
with  sovereignty  have  added  chapters  to  the  big  bible 
known  as  CiviUzation.  When  statehood  is  surrendered, 
the  muse  of  history  folds  her  notebook  and  departs. 

A  Free  City  is  the  marriage  of  economics  and  religion. 
It  exalts  workingmen  into  the  seats  of  the  mighty;  but 
it  sees  to  it  that  they  are  patriotic  workingmen,  cherish- 
ing the  State  as  their  supreme  loyalty.  In  so  doing  it 
sows  in  their  hearts  the  seeds  of  aspiration,  inculcates 
just  and  faithful  dealing.  By  reason  of  city  pride,  in- 
dustry is  shot  through  with  a  sense  of  obligation.  A 
municipal  socialism  would  be  a  reUgious  socialism.  With- 
out contradiction,  the  sum  of  Scripture  is  that  the  Free 
City  is  a  spiritual  institute.  A  citizenly  proletariat  is 
the  consummation  of  the  universe.  The  Bible  deifies 
democracy;  it  preaches  the  kingliness  of  the  Conunune; 
which  is  not  only  a  stern  rampart  of  Uberty,  but  also  is 
a  sober  and  responsible  society,  A  municipally-minded 
workingclass  domesticates  Deity  here  in  our  low  earth. 
The  community  state  declares  that  the  toilers  are  celes- 
tially ordained  to  dignities  and  the  rulership. 

The  labor  movement  is  divine,  because  it  has  for  its 
purpose  to  glorify  the  world  with  elegance  and  majesty. 
Never  is  beauty  the  product  of  a  fat  and  compliant  soul. 
MunicipaUty  comes  to  put  iron  into  our  exhausted  blood. 
Free  Cities  have  been  the  sunbursts  along  the  Time- 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE     301 

stream,  irradiating  what  otherwise  had  been  a  stupid 
story.  They  were  beautiful  because  they  were  free. 
Liberty  alone  communicates  dignity  and  power  to  the 
workingclass,  whereby  their  toil  takes  on  a  heightened 
tone,  so  that  the  centuries  elbow  each  other  to  gaze  thereon. 
In  sa3dng  that  genius  is  an  affair  of  poUtical  adjustment, 
I  say  what  is  attested  by  abundant  and  irrefutable  cita- 
tions. The  one  thing  most  learnable  from  history  — 
that  kind  and  sagacious  schoolmaster  —  is  that  in  city 
republics  workmen  build  beautifully;  in  other  poUties  of 
state  they  build  unbeautifully. 

If  labor  in  the  twentieth  century  decides  for  comfort 
instead  of  hberty,  it  is  all  up  with  art.  To  work  as  Uttle 
as  possible!  is  a  pig-stye  the  goal  that  is  ahead  of  us? 
"a  millenium  of  tin  cornices  and  caUco!"  The  grand 
epochs  have  been  those  in  which  the  workers  were  patient 
of  suffering,  but  most  impatient  of  servitude.  Prison 
is  wherever  man  toils  without  imagination.  And  a 
prison  product  is  never  beautiful.  Only  in  freedom's 
hot  and  teeming  soil  do  works  of  beauty  germinate.  A 
commodity  made  by  millhands,  sullen  with  the  joylessness 
that  hung  over  its  creation,  cannot  be  lovely;  even 
though  it  be  the  product  of  a  six-hour  workday.  To 
have  beauty  once  more  upon  the  earth,  we  must  have 
freemen;  each  producer  a  peer  of  the  realm,  toilers  re- 
splendent with  magistracy  and  lordship,  enfranchised 
citizens  in  the  commonwealth  of  God.  Pericles  would 
not  permit  a  slave  to  work  on  the  civic  edifices  he  was 
building.  Art  is  the  capacity  of  a  piece  of  work  to  re- 
produce in  the  beholder  the  tingle  that  presided  over  its 
conception  and  nativity.  Between  art  and  servitude 
there  is  an  incompatibihty  of,  temper.  To  build  a  para- 
dise, other  ingredients  are  requisite  than  asphalt  and  pig 
iron.    Beauty  will  not  revisit  the  earth  save  on  the  arm 


302  THE  FREE  CITY 

of  Freedom,  her  lordly  spouse;  self-government,  which 
the  noble  spirits  in  every  age  have  concurred  in  pro- 
nouncing the  only  thing  worth  striving  for.  Free  Cities 
are  the  beads  on  the  rosary  of  time,  great  beads  inter- 
spersed with  lesser  ones;  that  we  may  piously  tell  them 
over,  with  thanksgiving  and  strong  devotion. 

Municipahty  is  the  passion  of  collectivity.  "If  one 
misdo,"  read  the  Gothic  guild  regulations,  "let  all  bear 
it;  let  all  share  the  same  lot."  Ever  the  communion  of 
mankind  has  functioned  in  small  units,  and  always  will. 
The  city  commonwealth  is  the  democracy  of  common 
sense.  Positioned  at  the  heart  of  life,  it  is  a  universal 
counterbalancing.  We  hear  a  good  deal  nowadays  about 
"natural  rights,"  "workmen's  rights,"  "  property  rights," 
"women's  rights."  Municipal  Rights  comprehends  them 
all.  The  citizen  commune  is  life's  nodal  point,  where 
contradictories  turn  to  concord  and  belligerencies  find 
a  redeemer.  It  holds  the  teeter-board  of  law  and 
license  on  an  even  beam.  To  be  a  citizen  is  to  be 
spiritually-minded,  but  also  to  keep  a  foothold  on  the 
sound  and  solid  earth.  The  citizen  looks  not  so  exclu- 
sively at  the  stars  that  he  falls  into  a  well,  nor  does  he 
watch  out  for  the  wells  in  his  path,  to  a  forgetting  of 
the  constellations  by  which  alone  he  can  set  and  keep 
his  course.  He  is  attached  to  the  land,  but  never  as  a 
rustic  or  a  peasant;  the  city  near  at  hand  is  a  world 
capital;  so  that,  although  his  feet  plod  the  furrow,  he 
leads  a  big  life.  Rome  could  draw  her  consuls  from 
the  plow. 

No  individual  man  is  large  enough  to  be  a  complete 
man.  Seeing  the  picture  of  a  faultless  woman,  beholders 
express  the  wish  that  they  could  be  as  perfect  as  she  who 
sat  as  the  model.  But  that  artist  employed  several 
models;  took  the  face  of  one,  the  breast  of  another,  the 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE    303 

neck  and  shoulders  of  another.  Now  that  the  picture  is 
completed,  individual  woman,  gazing  upon  it  and  spiritu- 
ally absorbing  it,  is  changed  into  the  same  full-orbed  de- 
velopment. Municipality  is  human  perfection,  because  it 
is  the  human  total.  Under  any  other  form  of  polity,  Man 
is  a  shattered  mirror;  the  parts  of  the  image  are  there, 
but  disunited;  "brain-cracked,"  is  the  word  we  use. 
The  commimity  state  is  the  mirror  unfractured;  gather- 
ing the  fragmentary  egos  into  a  unified  picture;  and  we 
call  it  beauty. 

The  Free  City  is  another  term  for  equilibrium;  Ufe  in 
its  entireness;  the  dreamer's  dream  and  the  doer's  deed, 
in  clasp  with  shriekings  of  dehght.  To-day  our  existence 
is  departmental.  Labor  is  tapering  off  into  an  ever  more 
narrow  and  inhuman  speciaUsm.  Consider  Giotto, 
master-workman  in  Florence.  He  could  build,  paint, 
mold,  work  in  mosaic;  and  during  most  of  his  life,  he  was 
in  the  active  apostleship  of  St.  Francis.  Michael  Angelo 
attained  distinction  in  all  four  of  the  major  arts,  paint- 
ing, sculpture,  poetry,  and  architecture.  Raphael,  great- 
est of  painters,  was  also  an  architect  and  an  archaeologist. 
Leonardo  insisted  that  he  was  not  great  as  a  painter, 
but  rather  as  an  architect,  scientist,  and  engineer.  Lack- 
ing but  the  gasoline  engine,  he  solved  the  art  of  flying. 
A  spit  for  roasting  pigs  was  one  of  his  contrivances. 
While  painting  "The  Last  Supper,"  he  left  the  head  of 
one  of  the  apostles  a  long  time  unfinished;  because  he 
became  interested  in  devising  a  sausage  machine,  and  had 
trouble  in  getting  one  of  the  blades  to  work  properly. 

Municipal  sense  is  common  sense.  The  city  state  puts 
all  things  into  ratio.  Owners  cry  that  property  rights 
should  receive  exclusive  thought;  it  isn't  common  sense. 
The  anarchist  cries  that  individual  rights  are  alone  im- 
portant;   it   isn't   conamon   sense.    Brute   materialists 


304  THE  FREE  CITY 

swing  off  in  one  direction,  wild  dreamers  swing  off  in  the 
opposite  direction;  municipality  takes  them  both  by 
the  scruff  of  the  neck  and  pulls  them  back  into  unison; 
neither  low-vaulted  utilitarianism  nor  cloud-soaring 
idealism,  but  a  broad  and  liberal  humanism.  When 
classes  are  exasperated  against  each  other,  city-worship 
strikes  the  note  that  conciliates  them. 

In  thus  declaring  that  life  is  bifocal  —  property  rights 
and  personal  rights  on  a  parity  —  and  that  the  Haves 
and  Have-nots  must  formulate  an  amicable  program, 
laborists  may  deem  me  overcomplaisant  to  the  monied 
set.  He  who  is  writing  this  occupies  a  prison  cell,  and 
there  are  stanchions  of  iron  thick  barring  the  window 
yonder  —  (in  a  day  of  the  Dollar's  mad  obsession,  they 
alone  are  free  who  are  in  jail  for  the  cause  of  freedom). 
We  of  the  industrial  reHgion  have  a  great  ideology;  we 
must  interfuse  it  with  matter-of-fact  actuaUty.  The 
material  element  in  civiUzation  is  of  as  much  importance 
as  the  personal  element;  that  the  balances  may  hang 
equal.  Our  Pegasus  should  go  in  plow-harness.  Towards 
either  fact  or  theory,  citizenship  permits  not  a  hairs- 
breadth  of  bias.  The  middle  path  is  the  sound  path. 
IN  MEDIO  TUTissiMUS  IBIS.  Commercialism  at  the  one 
extreme,  fanaticism  at  the  opposite  extreme;  munici- 
pality blends  them  into  communalism,  component  of 
the  two.  Each  is  necessary  for  the  correction  of  the 
other;  life's  alkali  and  life's  acid  combining  to  form  life's 
base. 

The  Free  City  draws  her  lines  perpendicular  to  the 
social  strata.  She  destroys  class  enmity.  Vertical  lines 
of  division,  when  they  conform  to  physical  geography, 
are  natural.  Horizontal  lines,  disregarding  landscapes 
and  inflaming  class  against  class,  are  unnatural.  Civic 
consciousness  goes  prosperously.    Class  consciousness  is 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE     305 

forbidden  by  cosmic  decree.  The  municipal  state  is  the 
natm-al  state,  because  it  is  a  microcosm.  Athens  was  a 
cross  section  of  the  universe;  extending  from  Nature  in 
her  lowest  and  primeval  orders,  up  to  humans  in  the 
shape  of  an  Aristides.  That  "Uttle  cosmos,"  seK-fed 
and  self-possessed,  was  a  true  state.  Truth  is  fideUty  of 
interchange  between  materiahty  and  ideaUty,  the  outer 
world  and  the  inner,  Nature  and  human  nature. 

Life's  rightful  center  —  five  and  twenty  centuries  with 
thundering  speech  proclaim  it  —  is  the  community; 
whence  the  rays  of  government  can  diverge  to  and  fructify 
both  the  extreme  Left  and  the  extreme  Right,  from 
minutest  affairs  of  the  individual,  to  business  of  world- 
wide ranges.  It  is  the  mediatrix,  in  whose  just  arbit- 
rament the  warring  estates  of  life  coincide;  labor  and 
capital  marching  abreast  in  Uberal  reciprocity.  The 
municipal  repubhc  is  a  pantheon  of  all  the  grandeurs; 
life  in  its  congregation  and  totaUty;  an  omnium  gathe- 
rum; man  completing  himself  on  all  sides.  It  alone  can 
break  down  the  barriers  between  wrangling  creeds  and 
classes.  The  city  repubUcs  reveal  a  scene  where  all  the 
interests  of  hfe  meet  in  one  full  center  of  radiance. 

Every  great  epoch  has  been  characterized  by  a  great 
synthesis.  Municipality  is  the  synthesizer.  Make  the 
ego  supreme,  you  have  mob-rule.  Make  the  world-unit 
supreme,  you  have  money-rule.  Make  the  conununity 
supreme,  you  sociaUze  the  mob  and  you  humanize  the 
money  power.  Under  nationalism,  hfe's  material  part 
is  gaining  on  life's  personal  part;  plutocracy  is  rising  in 
the  ascendant.  Which  is  bad  even  for  the  propertied 
class.  It  breeds  war,  and  war  has  now  for  four  years 
been  destrojdng  property  at  the  rate  of  a  bilhon  dollars 
weekly.  Mammon-Moloch  is  not  only  swallowing  us  up, 
it  is  eating  itself  up.    Pepsin  is  good.    But  when  the 


306  THE  FREE  CITY 

stomach  begins  to  digest  itself,  has  not  the  pepsin  o'er- 
leaped  itself  and  become  pathology?  We  behold  a  tm-bu- 
lence  more  and  more  bloodshot;  the  law  lagging  ever 
more  slowly,  the  bullet  speeding  ever  more  swiftly. 
Sweeter  than  peace  in  fever  comes  to  us  the  evangel  of 
citizenship.  Unto  a  haggard  and  distraught  era,  harried 
by  contending  winds  and  conflicting  currents,  it  is  the 
pacificator.  Frost  and  fire  immemorially  at  quarrel; 
Heaven  mixes  them  in  municipahty's  golden  brew. 

To  modernity  has  befallen  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief. 
It  is  because  of  our  ego-lunacy.  Lord  God  is  not  an  ego. 
He  has  only  a  social  being,  and  must  be  socially  discerned. 
Rehgion  is  a  big-scale  enterprise.  It  is  a  community 
affair,  not  an  individual  affair.  John  Smith  thinks  he 
can  talk  face  to  face  with  the  Lord  of  the  universe  —  a 
fiire-fly  trying  to  be  chummy  with  a  volcano.  God  does 
not  transact  business  with  the  John  Smiths,  but  with 
Boston  or  Duluth  or  Milwaukee,  of  which  John  Smith  is 
a  part.  The  conmiunity  is  the  subject  of  redemption. 
Skepticism  is  always  a  stumble-stone  in  the  path  of  an 
ego  age;  stone  placed  there  Providentially  in  order  that 
individualism  may  stub  its  toe,  break  its  neck.  There  is 
nothing  that  will  so  infallibly  certify  the  existence  of  The 
Eternal,  as  a  sovereign  and  tender-hearted  city,  ein 
PESTE  BURG  IS  UNSER  GOTT,  saug  Luthcr.  And  Luther 
was  right:  God  is  a  strong-walled  city;  and  strong-walled 
cities  are  God.  It  is  a  seated  and  visible  spirituality; 
God  palpably  embodied;  base  on  which  to  build  an  eternal 
trust.  The  heart  of  man  to-day  is  sagging  with  doubt, 
because  we  have  gotten  away  from  the  Bible;  portraying 
the  Divine  to  be  anthropomorphic,  when  He  is  poUtico- 
morphic. 

God  is  not  shaped  like  a  man,  He  is  shaped  Uke  a  city. 
The  Divine  anatomy  is  municipal  in  its  form  and  features. 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE    307 

A  Free  City  is  vital  in  every  part,  so  that  the  rib-work  of 
its  streets  becomes  the  bony  framework  of  the  Most 
High,  into  which  all  the  parts  articulate.  Factories  are 
the  hands  of  EQm.  City  hall  is  the  heart  of  Him.  Farm- 
lands romid  about  are  the  food  of  Him.  Courts  and 
hbraries  are  the  brain  of  Him.  Trafl&c  is  the  moving 
blood  in  the  veins  of  Him.  Homes  are  cells  in  the  lungs 
of  Him.  PoHce  are  the  pahns  and  fists  of  Him.  Poverty 
is  tuberculosis  in  the  bones  of  Him.  Slums  are  a  blotch 
on  the  skin  of  Him.  Fifth  Avenue  is  a  dropsy  in  the 
flesh  of  Him.  Strikes  are  a  gripe  in  the  entrails  of  Him. 
Jails  are  a  sore  in  the  limbs  of  Him.  Festivals  are  the 
laughter  of  Him.  Beauty  is  a  smile  on  the  face  of  Him. 
Civic  sovereignty  is  the  backbone  of  Him,  keeping  the 
body  upright. 

An  objection  obtrudes,  I  doubt  not:  "The  city  repubHc 
was  suitable  for  ancient  times;  and  perhaps  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  world  is  no  longer  in  that  pristine 
simpUcity.  But  civihzation  now  is  a  complicated  thing. 
So  that  the  jurisprudence  of  Jesus  and  Aristotle  is  anti- 
quated. It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  we  must  stop 
hiring  our  government  done  for  us.  But  we  are  com- 
pelled to.  Political  administration  is  become  a  highly 
speciahzed  affair.  Government  by  hired  men  is  a  neces- 
sity. To  ask  the  people  as  a  whole  to  manage  so  expert 
and  involved  a  plexus  as  the  modern  political  system,  is 
to  ask  an  impossibility." 

I  think  so  too.  Not  only  is  it  an  impossibility  for  the 
people  as  a  whole.  For  the  brainiest  few,  it  is  equally 
impossible.  The  muddle  into  which  Christendom  has 
blundered,  declares  that  the  present  scheme  has  got  be- 
yond control.  No  brain  was  ever  produced,  equal  to 
the  government  of  so  vast  a  scheme  as  these  huge  modern 
entities  we  call  nations.    We  are  drifting.    Mankind  is 


906  THE  FREE  CITY 

not  using  the  matters  and  facts  of  life,  but  is  being  used 
by  them.  To  administer  so  colossal  an  aggregate  as  a 
nation,  embracing  a  bewilderment  of  climates  and  races 
and  topographies  jummixed  into  one,  is  a  task  (I  speak  it 
reverently)  beyond  the  capacity  of  Lord  God  Himself. 
That  is  why  He  commands  that  we  separate  the  tangled 
mass  into  its  segmental  parts,  and  put  each  part  into  the 
hands  of  the  people  who  Uve  there.  Said  Lord  Bryce  in 
his  recent  address  as  president  of  the  British  Academy, 
"Sometimes  one  feels  as  if  modern  states  were  growing 
too  huge  for  the  men  to  whom  their  fortunes  are  com- 
mitted." Nationalism  seeks  to  support  the  temple  of 
civihzation  by  a  few  big  columns,  sparsely  scattered  over 
the  globe.  MunicipaUty  would  support  that  ponderous 
weight  by  a  multitude  of  small  piers  and  pilings,  dis- 
tributed evenly  and  universally,  so  as  to  underprop  the 
mass  at  every  point. 

Aristotle  called  attention  to  the  law  that  is  operative 
everywhere  in  life:  For  each  thing  there  is  a  natural  size; 
as  for  tools  and  animals.  So,  said  he,  there  is  a  natural 
size  also  for  the  state;  and  that  is,  the  municipal  size. 
Beyond  that,  abnormality  begins.  Ocean  steamers  of 
fifty  thousand  tons  work  well.  Therefore  one  might 
reason  that  a  steamer  twenty  times  that  size  would  work 
twenty  times  as  well.  And  think  of  "the  economy  of 
large  production."  One  captain  could  preside  over  the 
entire  vessel,  releasing  nineteen  other  captains.  The 
decks  would  be  large  enough  for  golf  or  baseball;  and  such 
like.  But  marine  experts  will  tell  you  that  a  ship  of  a 
milUon  tons  would  be  so  large  and  draw  so  much  water, 
there  is  no  harbor  in  the  world  could  receive  the  mon- 
strosity. And  in  a  driving  seaway,  she  would  break 
apart.  Therefore,  instead  of  one  million-ton  ship,  we 
have  a  score  of  fifty-thousand  tonners;    working  har- 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE    309 

moniously  by  the  confederation  whereby  they  concert  a 
code  of  sea  lanes  and  signal  lights. 

Quite  fifty  per  cent  of  the  material  fabric  of  our  time  is 
senseless.  Not  only  could  we  get  along  without  it;  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  get  along  with  it.  To  overload  the 
stomach  is  a  waste  of  good  food;  but  also,  and  more 
seriously,  it  is  detrimental  to  the  health.  Other  ages 
also  have  been  overflooded  by  tides  of  misery.  But, 
so  far  as  I  know,  it  has  remained  for  modernity  to  present 
to  The  Immortals  the  spectacle  of  a  people  toiling  and 
moiling  to  saddle  upon  their  backs  a  jackass  load  of 
superfluity.  A  return  to  the  city  commonwealth  will 
mean  the  extinction  of  a  good  deal  of  improper  and  fool- 
ish work.  Amid  industrial  self-government,  the  toilers 
will  refuse  to  villify  themselves  with  degrading  employ- 
ment. To-day  hundreds  of  wage-earners  drudge  in 
tanneries  and  factories,  mixing  their  sweat  and  their 
blood  into  leather,  in  order  that  heels  may  be  so  high  as 
to  deform  the  person  and  hobble  the  gait.  The  tragedy 
of  the  labor  world  is  not  unemployment  but  misemploy- 
ment.  We  are  probably  in  the  vainest  Vanity  Fair  that 
ever  rattled  its  baubles  to  distract  attention  from  the 
tedium  and  vacuity  of  a  civilization  constituted  of  ivory, 
apes,  and  peaGocks.  When  all  the  world  shall  at  last  be 
electric-lighted,  rubber-tired  and  plastered  with  macadam, 
then  will  be  felicity  supernal?  then  we  shall  drink  deep 
bumpers  of  bliss? 

Observe  a  thrush  on  the  fence  rail,  singing  in  the  spring- 
time. With  what  a  verve  and  insouciance  pours  the  un- 
premeditated melody!  He  believes  in  the  natural  good- 
ness of  things,  and  with  a  faith  that  shames  the  small 
science  of  the  schools.  He  never  learned  voice  produc- 
tion. Yet  how  his  improvisation  exceeds  our  pains- 
takingness!    What  joy  of  being  alive!  what  nonchalance, 


310  THE  FREE  CITY 

so  careless  and  so  lofty!  Brother,  there  is  something 
wrong  if  we,  heir  of  all  the  ages,  high  uplifted  on  the 
pinnacles  of  time,  have  to  yield  the  laureateship  to  a 
thrush  on  the  fence  rail.  If  that  bird  is  joyful-hearted 
and  we  are  not,  our  "progress"  has  been  the  most  un- 
progressive  thing  imaginable.  In  order  to  lead  a  great 
life,  we  need  not  the  vainglories  of  an  excessively  material 
society.  Nature  is  of  exhaustless  bounty.  Would  we 
but  heed  Christ's  exhortation  against  worldly  carefulness, 
and  entrust  ourselves  to  the  spirit  of  Fellowship,  we  would 
be  cared  for.  Will  you  listen  to  the  recipe  for  a  banquet 
of  ambrosia?  —  good  hunger,  and  a  pot  frothing  at  the 
fire.  In  the  communion  of  spirited  and  liberal  minds,  a 
luxurious  menu  is  impedimenta.  How  scurvily  we  have 
been  dealt  with  by  destiny!  modern  materialism  has 
travailed  in  a  mountainous  birth;  and  now,  delivered  of 
the  enormity,  it  is  fovmd  to  be  not  a  mountain  but  a 
rubbish  heap. 

Municipal  states  are  small;  they  are  based  on  the 
qualitative  standard.  National  states  are  huge  —  care 
for  naught  but  the  quantitative  standard.  The  larger 
the  state,  the  more  warlike.  Whenever  a  small  state 
shows  a  bent  toward  war,  peer  closely  and  behind  the 
scenes  you  will  discover  some  imperial  nation  pulling 
the  wires. 

Joy  is  the  best  germicide;  gladness  is  better  than  doc- 
tors. Our  soul  is  built  for  beauty,  and  is  homesick  until 
it  rests  in  beauty.  Medicaments  will  not  dull  the  ache 
of  that  unappeasable  hunger.  A  day  of  toys,  day  of 
fops,  day  of  surfeits;  a  very  Nessus-shirt,  shooting  in  on 
our  distracted  day  all  descriptions  of  misery.  We  boast 
much  of  sanitation.  The  Bethlehem  Stable  would  be 
condemned  out  of  hand  by  a  modern  board  of  health. 
But  I  have  not  heard  of  a  maternity  hospital  nowadays 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE     311 

that  is  turning  out  a  better  product.  The  community- 
state  simphfies  life,  so  that  democracy  becomes  practi- 
cable. Government  is  not  an  occult  or  recondite  province 
of  knowledge;  something  to  be  administered  by  hireling 
professionals.  Government  is  a  group  of  people  manag- 
ing their  affairs  in  common.  Now  that  we  have  machines 
to  do  the  gross  work,  to  even  the  lowhest  can  be  appor- 
tioned leisure  for  hberal  arts  and  a  daily  pubhc-minded- 
ness.  Labor,  whose  Atlantean  shoulders  support  the 
world,  is  competent  to  govern  the  world. 

MunicipaHty  is  the  religion  of  common  sense.  To-day, 
common  sense  is  quite  the  most  uncommon  thing  in  the 
market.  Common  sense  is  the  principle  of  community. 
It  is  the  highroad,  formed  by  throwing  up  the  ground  from 
both  sides;  the  ditch  of  materiality  yielding  up  its  quota 
from  the  Right,  the  ditch  of  ideaUty  yielding  up  its  quota 
from  the  Left;  and  the  road  between  is  Reality.  It  is 
Fellowship,  wooing  the  colHsions  of  life  into  teamwork. 
The  community  state  is  sohdarity  between  the  deed  and 
the  dream;  the  stabilizer,  by  whose  laws  and  institutes 
the  balance  of  the  world  is  kept.  Since  the  Gothic  day 
of  power,  what  a  jaunt  we  have  gone;  digressing  from 
the  highway,  to  the  right  hand  and  to  the  left!  Man  is 
an  inquisitive  animal;  will  be  adventuring  into  every 
side-alley.  But  the  experience  now  has  been  acquired. 
The  pitiful  swamp  we  are  in,  apprises  us  that  we 
must  leave  off  saunterings  and  get  back  onto  the 
roadway.  Across  the  belly  and  abyss  of  chaos,  munic- 
ipality gives  the  only  assured  footing.  Nowhere  else 
shall  man's  heart  be  tranquilly  established.  Free 
Cities  are  the  high  units  of  mankind,  centers  of  fixed- 
ness amid  the  universal  flux.  Self-government  is  the 
one  foundation  on  which  can  be  erected  an  enduring 
political  edifice. 


312  THE  FREE  CITY 

People  are  not  good  or  bad;  they  are  in  a  society  that 
is  organized  or  unorganized.  The  ego  is  helpless.  Pri- 
vate man  is  a  microscopic  infinitesimal  splinter;  a  mos- 
quito in  the  wind.  In  the  fields  of  Time  and  Space,  he 
is  of  no  more  size  than  a  wriggler  in  a  rain  barrel.  Munic- 
ipaUty  takes  the  human  pismire  and  makes  a  man  out 
of  him.  It  is  the  collectivity  that  counts.  The  tree, 
not  the  fruit,  is  the  object  of  God's  attention.  CiviUza- 
tion  is  the  principle  of  mutuality;  atomistic  frag- 
mentary egos,  clubbing  together  their  dwarfish  powers  to 
form  a  full-sized  Human  Being.  The  Free  City  not  only 
is  of  God  but  is  God. 

A  city  commonwealth  is  automatic  morality.  And  all 
the  more  moral  because  of  the  easy  and  unconscious  grace 
of  it.  People  are  bells  arranged  to  be  rung  in  chime.  At 
present  this  peal  gives  out  anything  but  a  musical  sound. 
Thereupon  preachers  and  teachers,  moralists  and  legal- 
ists, accuse  each  bell  individually  of  being  unmelodious; 
and  they  try  to  tune  it.  The  bells  are  all  right,  provided 
they  are  swung  in  harmony.  The  same  set  of  bells  can 
chime  with  sweetness,  or  jangle  deviUshly  out  of  tune. 
When  individuals  coalesce  to  form  municipal  democra- 
cies, truth  and  uprightness  and  creative  power  emerge 
without  special  effort.     It  is  irresistible  grace. 

The  city  state  as  a  personal  and  sentient  being,  is  the 
next  step  in  evolution.  People  imagine  that  the  leap 
from  the  animal  into  the  human  has  already  taken  place. 
The  War  that  has  defaced  Christendom  is  proof  to  the 
contrary.  An  egoist  is  an  animal,  whether  he  walk  on 
two  legs,  or  four,  or  six.  A  private-minded  man  is  a  brute 
beyond  all  cattle  of  the  pasture  or  furry-coated  prowlers 
of  the  wildwood.  A  beast  of  prey  is  no  less  a  beast  of 
prey  because  he  has  a  brain  sharper  than  that  of  a  fox, 
and  walks  on  hind  legs  taller  than  a  gorilla.     The  human 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COMMON  SENSE     313 

biped,  except  he  grow  a  social  consciousness,  is  a  super- 
animal;  king  of  the  carnivora. 

The  evolutionary  step  is  from  animality  into  munic- 
ipality. All  of  the  singularities  that  distinguish  us  from 
our  four-footed  relatives  came  to  us  as  a  heritage  from 
Free  Cities,  those  isolated  spots  in  history  where  animal- 
ity took  the  leap  and  for  a  time  became  municipaUty. 
That  civic  organism  took  the  mob  mind  and  fused  it  into 
civil  consciousness.  MunicipaUty  is  a  cooperative  Brain; 
they  through  whom  that  Brain  functions,  speak  and  act 
with  common  sense.  Animals  on  the  other  hand  are  all 
they  who  speak  and  act  with  ego  sense.  The  difference 
between  pubHc-mindedness  and  private-mindedness  is 
the  difference  between  Florence-on-the-Arno  and  the 
AustraHan  Bush.  It  is  high  time  we  Americans  stopped 
talking  in  terms  of  population  and  began  to  talk  in  terms 
of  civiUzation.  Ego  bipeds  are  not  an  asset,  they  are  a 
UabiUty.  We  don't  appraise  a  landscape  by  the  number 
of  wolves,  bobcats,  and  buffaloes,  but  by  the  number  of 
dogs,  kittens,  and  cows  —  the  tamed  species.  "Yonkers, 
Ninety  Thousand!"  But  if  they  are  unconverted  egos, 
the  more  the  worse. 

A  municipal  repubUc  —  minds  aiming  at  one  butt, 
hearts  cooperating  to  the  selfsame  purpose  —  is  a  crater 
of  the  central  lake  of  fellowship,  that  Fire  so  fearfully 
and  so  wonderfully  burning  at  the  heart  of  the  cosmos. 
The  crowning  book  of  the  Bible  is  the  one  written  on 
Patmos.  Therein  is  delineated  a  portrait  of  Him  who 
is  higher  than  the  highest.  And  we  find  the  portrait 
taking  the  guise  of  a  garden  city;  ruling  itself;  owning 
no  earthly  superior.  The  Elders  were  there,  graybeards 
clothed  with  reverence  and  authority.  The  inhabiters 
dwelt  in  concord,  observing  degree,  priority,  and  rank. 
A  Carpenter  was  the  prince  and  chief  in  that  Free  City. 


314  THE  FREE  CITY 

Lovely  was  the  river;  lovely  were  the  trees  by  the  side 
of  the  river.  With  a  frontier  the  city  was  girt  about. 
Nor  did  this  wall  of  sovereignty  blemish  the  landscape; 
it  was  preciously  built,  course  upon  course  in  prismatic 
colorings  —  a  hoop  of  rainbow  splendor  hemming  them 
in.  Reports  the  narrator:  "I  saw  no  temple  therein"; 
in  a  city  commonwealth,  every  part  is  instinct  with  divin- 
ity; work  is  worship;  the  chimneys  of  industry  are 
steeples  pointing  heavenwards.  And  this  picture  of 
heaven  as  a  Free  City,  is  not  confined  to  the  book  of  Reve- 
lations; it  is  reinforced  by  the  drift  of  all  the  Scriptures. 
Municipahty's  magnanimous  passion  has  Heaven  for  its 
immutable  and  everlasting  guarantee. 

Some  will  say  I  have  overwrought  the  theme.  I  have 
not  overwrought.  My  stuttering  pen  has  pushed  toward 
profundities  deep  beyond  fathom.  The  Free  City  is 
God's  epic  adventure  down  the  tides  of  time.  I  have  not 
invented;  I  have  recorded.  The  book  of  history  and  the 
inner  voice  declare  it:  If  there  be  any  virtue  and  if  there 
be  any  praise,  self-government  created  it.  An  inter- 
locking of  little  repubhcs,  is  the  formula  for  extending 
self-government  over  wide  areas.  A  poUtical  pluraHsm, 
in  the  unity  of  a  confederative  whole.  It  will  restore  to 
us  the  arts  of  Attica,  the  grandeur  of  Rome,  the  goodness 
of  GaUlee,  the  charm  of  the  wonder-building  Gothics. 
And  earth  will  see  her  wholesome  days  again. 

Ad  majorem 
Dei  gloriam 


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